Name: Suburban man accused of threatening violence at Biden inauguration ordered to remain in custody
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Suburban man accused of threatening violence at Biden inauguration ordered to remain in custody

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AdvertisementBy Chicago TribuneJan 21, 2021 at 5:25 pmA south suburban man was ordered held without bond Thursday on federal charges alleging he left a message for a U.S. representative threatening to shoot up “terrorist” Democrats at the presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C., this week.In deciding that Louis Capriotti was a danger to the community, U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel Fuentes rejected the defense argument that the harm was minimized since there was no evidence Capriotti had any real plan to act on the threat.Advertisement“Threats hurt people,” Fuentes said at the end of a nearly 90-minute hearing. “They terrorize people. They make people afraid. There’s an argument to be made that’s what they’re intended to do in the first place.”The judge also said it was “very, very concerning” that Capriotti had continued to make telephonic threats of violence to members of Congress even after the FBI approached him a year ago and warned he could face criminal charges.Advertisement“(The FBI) explicitly discussed some of these calls and told him that this conduct had to stop, and then he didn’t stop,” Fuentes said. “It continued and it escalated.”During the hearing, prosecutors played an excerpt of the Dec. 29 call at the heart of the criminal complaint, left on a voicemail for a U.S. representative from New Jersey.“We will surround the m-----f------ White House and we will kill any m-----f------ Democrat that steps on the m-----f------ lawn,” a man alleged to be Capriotti could be heard saying in a distinctly south suburban Chicago accent. “If they think that Joe Biden is going to put his hand on the Bible and walk into that f------ White House on January 20th, they’re sadly f------ mistaken.”A similar threat was made concerning then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. The voicemail went on to refer to Democrats as “god hating” and “f------ terrorists.”Capriotti’s lawyer, Jack Corfman, argued that home detention would be sufficient to ensure the safety of the community, especially since Inauguration Day had passed and “went smoothly.”Assistant U.S. Attorney William Dunn disagreed, saying that Capriotti has a long history of ignoring court orders — including four misdemeanor convictions for violating orders of protection — and “needs nothing more than a phone” to continue his campaign of harassment.Capriotti, 45, of Chicago Heights, was arrested near his home on Jan. 12 on charges of transmitting a threat in interstate commerce, which carries a potential punishment of up to five years in prison.The charges came less than a week after supporters of then-President Donald Trump violently stormed the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from ratifying the electoral vote for Biden, leading to the deaths of a police officer and four others.AdvertisementThe 11-page criminal complaint alleged Capriotti has a history of leaving profane voicemails for members of Congress dating to at least 2017.On Nov. 18, shortly after Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 election, Capriotti called a U.S. representative from Michigan, identified himself as a U.S. Marine veteran who had killed several terrorists in combat and said he “will continue to kill them because that’s what I am trained to do,” the complaint stated.“In the next couple weeks, some big news is about to go down,” Capriotti said, adding that certain individuals “are going to be astonished of what’s going to be revealed,” the complaint stated.Authorities have determined that Capriotti was never in the military, according to the complaint. Advertisement

AdvertisementBy Chicago TribuneJan 21, 2021 at 5:25 pmA south suburban man was ordered held without bond Thursday on federal charges alleging he left a message for a U.S. representative threatening to shoot up “terrorist” Democrats at the presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C., this week.In deciding that Louis Capriotti was a danger to the community, U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel Fuentes rejected the defense argument that the harm was minimized since there was no evidence Capriotti had any real plan to act on the threat.Advertisement“Threats hurt people,” Fuentes said at the end of a...

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Jason Meisner

The Chicago Tribune is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television are named), it remains the most-read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region. It had the 6th highest circulation for American newspapers in 2017.

Suburban man accused of threatening violence at Biden inauguration ordered to remain in custody

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