SHREVEPORT, La. - United States Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced that a prisoner in Jackson, La., was sentenced last week to 51 months in prison for sending threatening messages to U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen L. Hayes.
Charles Lidberg, 28, of Baton Rouge, La., was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge S. Maurice Hicks Jr. on one count of making threatening communications. He was also sentenced to three years of supervised release. According to the Aug. 16, 2016 guilty plea, Lidberg, who was serving time at a state correctional institution for an unrelated crime, mailed a letter on Feb. 19, 2014 to Judge Hayes’ office stating that he would hunt down and kill her after he was released from prison. Lidberg said his friend promised him half a million dollars to kill the judge if she sentenced Lidberg’s friend to more than 10 years in prison. Lidberg also said he did not state his friend’s name because that would “take the fun out of this." He also gave a second letter threatening the judge to a fellow inmate who turned it over to law enforcement agents.
The U.S. Marshals Service conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Luke Walker prosecuted the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
