Decision 2020

New York man arrested for threatening Senators over Kavanaugh

Federal prosecutors in New York announced the arrest on Friday of a man who allegedly threatened to murder and assault a pair of U.S. Senators for their support of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, as police say the suspect placed a series of threatening telephone calls in which the man threatened to shoot the Senators if they supported the Kavanaugh nomination.

In court documents unsealed on Friday, a special agent with the U.S. Capitol Police detailed a number of voice mails left by the suspect, identified as Ronald DeRisi of Smithtown, on Long Island in New York.

The expletive-filled messages came during the final stages of debate on the Kavanaugh nomination, some as Kavanaugh testified for a second time before the Senate Judiciary Committee, on the same day as a woman who accused him of sexual misconduct back when they were in high school.

“The male caller, who did not identify himself on the recording, stated in relevant part, that he had a “present” for Senator-1, specifically: “It’s a nine millimeter,” court documents stated.

“He’s a dead man! Nine millimeter, side of the f—ing head!” police quoted the phone threats.

More voice mails were allegedly left by DeRisi after Kavanaugh had been confirmed by the Senate, as he called a second Senator’s office and left threatening messages.

“I’m gonna get you,” police quoted the message. “Don’t you know that guy’s a sex offender?”

At one point, the suspect allegedly read off the home address of the second Senator; it was not immediately clear from the court documents what two Senators had been targeted by the phone calls.

Court documents show that DeRisi pled guilty in 2015 to making threatening phone calls, and that police compared the telphone evidence from the two cases.