Legislature Considers New Felony for Threatening Judges

by Hugh McQuaid

Two branches of state government engaged in a philosophical debate Wednesday morning over how best to protect Connecticut judges from a rising number of threats and incidents of intimidation.

Chief Justice Richard Robinson testified during a hearing of the legislature’s Judiciary Committee in support of a bill that would, among other things, create a new Class C felony for intimidating a judge or a family support magistrate in an effort to influence a court ruling.

Robinson told legislators that unprecedented levels of threats necessitated the change. Many of these threats stemmed from civil cases or family court matters, he said.

“These are judges who have been experiencing an increase in threats like I haven’t seen since the time I’ve taken the bench,” Robinson said. The intimidation has occurred nationwide, he said. “We’ve had some murders of judges. We’ve had some bomb threats. We’ve had guns. We’ve had people hinting that other people should take action.”

According to statistics from the Judicial Marshal Services, Connecticut judges have received nearly 80 threats since 2016. Last year was the worst of those years with17

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Paul Bass www.newhavenindependent.org really not,” Stafstrom said. “Maybe there should be a broader conversation about, you know, threatening the governor, threatening the legislature, whatever. That’s a valid conversation this legislature could have if it wanted to… But going from the A misdemeanor currently, skipping the D felony altogether and going straight to the C felony, I think is where I get a little — are we going too big, too fast?”

Robinson said he believed that law enforcement officials were wary of charging offenders under the current law and expected the specificity of the proposed new charge to ease their concerns.

Rep. Pat Callahan told Robinson that he was sympathetic to the issues as well. The New Fairfield Republican’s father, Robert Callahan, was Connecticut’s chief justice from 1996 to 1999. Callahan said his family was threatened when he was a child.

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Robinson argued that a judiciary could only fulfill its constitutional obligation if its judges were free to make difficult decisions without fear of physical violence.

However, legislators from both parties were skeptical of the proposal to create a new felony. Connecticut already has a misdemeanor threatening statute under which someone could be charged for threatening a judge. Rep. Steve Stafstrom, a lawyer and Bridgeport Democrat who co-chairs the committee, said that more severe charges often result in fewer prosecutions.

“I’m not unsympathetic to the ask, I’m

“As a kid I was driven to school by the police because of threats,” Callahan said. However, Callahan said lawmakers were also frequently threatened and he had personally been subjected to threats as a football officiant. Two years ago a legislator filed a bill in the Judiciary Committee that would have hiked penalties for threatening sports officials. It was never raised for a

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