Marshal: Man sent death threat to judge

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Sending a nasty e-mail is never a good idea. Sending three to a federal judge threatening to kill him is a very bad idea. A man accused of doing that may now wish he had not.

Brian Stacy admitted to sending the vulgar e-mails full of threatening remarks, and his history of death threats made him even more of a concern.

Investigators said he wrote three e-mails to Senior U.S. District Judge John Conway in Albuquerque threatening his life.

“They were all graphic, each and every one, but they seemed to escalate with each mail that was submitted,” U.S. Marshal Conrad Candelaria said.

Some details of the e-mails are inside a federal criminal complaint. Racial slurs littered the e-mails. Stacy called Conway a midget and blasted him with homophobic slurs. Then he said he would kill Conway for fun.

Stacy was originally convicted on weapons charges in 2005 for carrying a sawed-off shotgun. The serial numbers had been scratched off. Conway sentenced him to 15 months behind bars.

In 2007 he was arrested for drunken driving, and then he scuffled with a Santa Fe cop five months later violating his probation.

That brought Stacy in front of Conway again where the judge sentenced him for those crimes and for threatening a federal probation officer.

Making the threats sent to Conway on Sunday seems even more real.

“This establishes him as a potential viable threat against a member of the judiciary,” said Candelaria.

But, if you mess with a federal judge, you mess with the U.S. Marshals Service.

“Protection of our federal judges, we take that very seriously,” said Candelaria.

Marshals tracked the e-mails to Stacy and arrested him in Los Alamos where he lives. Candelaria said threats like these happen more often than you might think.

“We have a detail that is dedicated specifically for the protection of our judges," he said.

The Marshals Service is now working with the state Department of Public Safety to establish a unit that would protect judges all over the state.

Stacy will face a different federal judge Friday for his arraignment on the threat charges.