Man gets three years for threatening judges

Saturday, Aug. 1, 1998 | 4:47 a.m.

Peter Baldassarre, 53, was arrested in September after he left a series of voice-mail messages for an attorney representing the State Industrial Insurance System.

Prosecutors claimed those messages and a letter written by Baldassarre constituted threats to U.S. District Judge David Hagen and U.S. Magistrate Robert Johnston.

In the letter, Baldassarre wrote, "Maybe a second federal judge will bite the dust."

The letter named both Johnston and Hagen, although the latter judge's name was written as "Heagen."

In the voice-mail message, Baldassarre threatened to cut off Hagen's head or one of his fingers. Jurors classified that statement as a threat to assault and murder the judge.

Baldassarre owned and operated Southern Nevada Tile & Marble Corp. in Las Vegas from June 1990 until January 1995.

During his trial, Baldassarre admitted he made the statements about the two judges, but he denied that he made any threats. He told jurors he had no intention of harming the judges and merely was venting his feelings of anger and frustration.

Public defender Leslie Fatowe said the company went out of business after being involved in a lawsuit with a tile supplier. Johnston and Hagen both made rulings in that case, she said.

The lawyer said Baldassarre later had a dispute with SIIS, now Employers Insurance Company of Nevada, involving his company.

Assistant U.S. Attorney L.J. O'Neale described Baldassarre as an intelligent man who suffers from a delusional disorder.

"Absent the treatment he so desperately needs and he so desperately resists, there's nothing that can be done for him," the prosecutor said.

He told U.S. District Judge Philip Pro the defendant represents an "ugly disease."

"He has to be quarantined," O'Neale said. "Nothing else can be done."