A man in South Florida has been accused of threatening to kill at least two judges. In posts on Facebook he said he was prepared to "go down in that blaze of glory if necessary."
Fifty-four-year-old John Mandia, of an area just west of Boca Raton, was arrested on Tuesday charged with three counts of written threats to kill or do bodily harm. According to a Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office probable cause affidavit, deputies on Monday said they investigated Mandia after a concerned resident contacted law enforcement regarding Mandia's social media posts.
According to an affidavit, one of the posts said, "Yo, what happened to Trump happened to me first ... Yo let's go kill some judges and prosecutors [in] Palm Beach. I'm coming and you can't do a f****** thing about it."
White powder sent to judge in Donald Trump's civil fraud case
A court officer screening mail at Judge Arthur Engoron’s Manhattan courthouse opened the envelope around 9:30 a.m. and some of the powder fell out.
Deputies said they interviewed two people who know Mandia, both of whom expressed their concerns that he might act on the threats. Investigators said they later learned that Mandia also made a post a few weeks earlier on Jan. 15 in which he expressed a desire to kill Judge Scott Suskauer and Judge Rosemarie Scher.
The affidavit said that post on social media said, "I did 2 yrs. in prison ... My ex-wife lied, and ABUSED THE LAWS OF FLORIDA ..."
The statement went on to say Mandia wrote, "THEY THREW ME IN PRISON BECAUSE THE ALMIGHTY JUDGE WAS INSULTED I MADE THAT TEXT ... YO JUDGE ... I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE ... YOU BETTER HAVE YOUR HEAD ON A SWIVEL BECAUSE THIS RANGER IS COMING FOR YOU!!!!!!!"
Deputies said that the threat was related to a domestic violence injunction case that was presided over by Scher.
Mandia is said to have subsequently violated a court order and was later arrested and convicted of a felony for aggravated stalking in a case heard by Suskauer and Assistant State Attorney Monique Wilson.
In relation to Mandia's Facebook post on Jan. 15, a social media user replied, "Be careful my friend. You may land up back in prison for threatening a judge. People are stupid."
Investigators said Mandia then replied to the user by saying, "thanks ... but at this point I just want to shed light on this and go public..."
His statement read, "...I'm 54 and lived the life of an 80-year-old ... so I'll go down in that blaze of glory if necessary but that f****** judge took [my] life away now that motherf***** c*** of a judge's life is mine."
The same Facebook user then replied to Mandia, writing, "I get it. I am sorry you went through this...."
Mandia then replied, "I had no due process in my divorce proceedings because I was incarcerated and got divorced in jail without attending any court hearing..." and wrote, "I'm ready to die ... for this, my cause!!! Yo Judge, I'm coming and you can't hide mother f*****!!!!!!!"
Investigators said since his threatening Facebook posts escalated, they found probable cause to arrest Mandia. The affidavit said the suspect also made a threat to take the "judge's life" and to "hunt down" the judges and the prosecutor.
Mandia is being held at the main Palm Beach County jail in South Florida on a $450,000 bond.
This story was originally published by Scott Sutton at Scripps News West Palm Beach.
