Guilty plea pegs landlord as motive in courthouse threat

A man whose online threats twice caused the evacuation of Los Angeles Superior Court's Inglewood Courthouse sent the menacing messages to disrupt an eviction proceeding his landlord had initiated against him, according to a plea agreement.

John Patrice Hale, 43, faces at least a year in federal prison under a plea deal his attorney, Deputy Federal Public Defender Deborah E. Gonzalez, reached with Assistant U.S. Attorney George E. Pence. Hale pleaded guilty Monday to making threats to injure in interstate commerce.

Pence agreed to move to dismiss his other nine charges at sentencing, scheduled Oct. 29 before U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer, who accepted Hale's plea.

According to the plea agreement, Hale sent threats under the name Frost K. Blizzard to the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department's Court Services Division website in May 2017, which led to the emergency closure of the Inglewood location on May 12 and May 16.

The messages referred to explosives, Allah and the Islamic State, though the U.S. attorney's office said investigators have not linked Hale to international terrorism. United States v. Hale, 17-CR00703 (C.D. Cal., filed Nov. 7, 2017).

Hale also admitted to making a similar threat against a business that employed his stepdaughter "in order to disrupt his stepdaughter's work" and to submitting false information to the FBI website that tried to frame his landlord for the bomb threats, according to the agreement.

Hale's offense level under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines was 16, which included four points for substantially disrupting public, governmental or business functions or services. However, Pence agreed to recommend a two-level reduction "provided that defendant demonstrates an acceptance of responsibility for the offense up to and including the time of sentencing." He'll also "if necessary, move for an additional one-level reduction if available under that section."

An offense level of 13 brings a standard sentencing range of 12 to 18 months for someone with the lowest level criminal history.

The agreement tentatively calculates Hale's restitution at $6,605.31.