Man Pleads Guilty to Making Threats to Burn Churches and NAACP Headquarters

BOSTON—A Medford man pleaded guilty today to mailing threatening letters to churches with predominantly African-American congregations and to offices of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

JEFFREY SMITH, 46, pleaded guilty to 11 counts of an indictment charging him with mailing letters threatening to burn down seven predominantly black churches and four NAACP headquarters in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and North Carolina. Smith also pleaded guilty to two counts of sending letters to individuals in North Carolina and Providence, threatening to kill or injure them.

Smith was arrested on April 15, 2010. The complaint affidavit supporting the arrest stated that between September 17-19, 2009, the Saint Paul American Methodist Episcopal Church in Cambridge, Mass. and the NAACP chapter in Roxbury, Mass. each received letters stating that the author did “not like African American or minorities in charge as supervisors of my security department at Novartis, nor I like them as President of the United States. For that I am going to burn down your offices just let you know how I feel. What right does some black person has the right to be in charge of me.”

The affidavit also said that between September 22, 2009 and March 16, 2010, the FBI was notified of 29 additional computer-generated letters, similarly packaged. Nine of the additional letters were addressed to churches and NAACP chapters in Medford, Mass., Charlotte, N.C. and Providence. Each of the nine letters articulated a specific threat to burn down the church or NAACP chapter which received the letter. The letters referenced racial animus towards “Blacks and minorities,” and the election of President Barack Obama as justification for burning down the NAACP office. Two additional letters allegedly threatened to shoot the recipients “on site” should they enter Boston or Providence.

SMITH admitted to agents during an interview that he composed and mailed all the threatening letters to the churches and NAACP using the name of a Securitas supervisor with whom he did not get along, or whom he believed had unfairly taken employment action against a co-worker who is black.

U.S. District Judge Joseph L. Tauro scheduled sentencing for July 14, 2011. Smith faces up to 10 years’ imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine on each of the 11 counts of mailing a threat to use fire to damage property, and five years’ imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine on each of the two counts of mailing a threat to injure or kill a person.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Richard DesLauriers, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation - Boston Field Division; Robert Bethel, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert C. Haas; Medford Police Chief Leo A. Sacco, Jr.; Providence Police Colonel Dean Esserman; and Chief Rodney Monroe of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg (N.C.) Police Department made the announcement today. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney S. Theodore Merritt of Ortiz’s Civil Rights Enforcement Team and Public Corruption and Special Prosecutions Unit.