Threat investigator works to keep judges from harm

Kim Smith

Tuesday, Aug. 10, 1999 | 11:32 a.m.

Three federal judges have been assassinated in the last 20 years. Randy Riggenbach wants to make sure none of Las Vegas' judges are next.

Riggenbach is a threat investigator with the U.S. Marshals Service and assigned to Las Vegas. He has investigated "inappropriate communications" made to federal judicial officials for 11 of his 16 years with the service.

According to the U.S. Marshals Service's website, 710 threats or inappropriate communications were made to judicial officials last year and 406 have been reported so far this year.

Thirteen of last year's incidents were in Las Vegas, Riggenbach said. Two threats or inappropriate communications have been received so far this year.

According to the marshals service, an inappropriate communication is any contact with a federal judicial official that is "unwarranted, ominous, threatening, weird, bizarre or untoward." It can include stalking, pseudo-legal court filings and obsessive admiration.

Riggenbach said he has seen letters that could be construed as threatening, people who have mailed court papers to judges' homes and people who have attempted to discuss cases with a judge although that isn't allowed. Three U.S. District judges and three federal magistrates are based in Las Vegas.

Judge Philip Pro, who in 1996 was temporarily assigned extra protection because of death threats made by a group of inmates, commended the U.S. marshals and other law enforcement agencies for their efforts.

Pro said he rarely receives overt threats, but the U.S. Marshals are diligent in investigating every incident that comes up.

"Periodically I will receive letters that suggest or imply a threat rather than a direct threat," Pro said. "And sometimes I'll receive letters written to dozens or hundreds of judges in mass mailings."

Any time he receives such a missive, Pro said he automatically contacts the marshals.

"If a threat is made, it is definitely something that needs to be taken seriously," Pro said. "The one time you don't take a threat seriously is when something will go wrong."

Riggenbach said an example of a questionable comment is "you need to think about what your decision is going to be." It could be interpreted as a threat and is indicative of the type of comment taken seriously by the marshals office, Riggenbach said.

Some comments can only be interpreted one way. Peter Baldassarre, a former Las Vegas businessman, was sentenced in August 1998 to 37 months in prison for threatening to cut off U.S. District Judge David Hagen's head and one of his fingers. Baldassarre also threatened U.S. Magistrate Robert Johnston. The threats were received by voice-mail and through letters.

Baldassarre was apparently upset with the Las Vegas judges about rulings they made in a lawsuit in which he was a party.

The three judges assassinated since 1979 received no such threats before they were killed.

Judge John H. Wood Jr., who served in the Western District of Texas, was shot in the back on May 29, 1979, after a family of drug smugglers hired an assassin because they feared their case would be assigned to him. Wood was known for handing down harsh sentences. His nickname was "Maximum John."

Ten years later Judge Richard Daronco was chased through his yard and into his house and shot to death. His killer, Charles Koster, was upset Daronco had dismissed his daughter's sexual discrimination lawsuit in the Southern District of New York. Koster killed himself.

In December 1989 Walter Leroy Moody mailed four bombs to separate addresses in the South because he was angry the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals wouldn't purge an earlier criminal conviction of his. Circuit Judge Robert S. Vance, who sat on the panel that denied Moody's appeal, was killed, as was a civil rights attorney. The last two bombs were intercepted at the Eleventh Circuit Courthouse and at a National Association for the Advancement of Colored People office.

According to Frederick Calhoun's book "Hunters and Howlers: Threats and Violence against Federal Judicial Officials in the United States, 1789-1993," only one federal judge had been killed in the 90 years prior to Wood's death.

It is Riggenbach's job, as a deputy marshal, to determine which threats are viable. It is the FBI's job to conduct any criminal investigation that may result.

"It's a fine line we walk between what is considered an inappropriate communication or threat and when someone is just exercising their First Amendment rights," Riggenbach said.

Usually the judges or officials are contacted by phone or mail, Riggenbach said. Once he learns of the incident, he does a background check and checks to see if that person has a case before the judge. He will also check to see if mental health agencies or other law enforcement agencies are familiar with the person. In some cases he will interview the person.

Park Dietz is a national expert on the subject of assassins who has studied threats to Hollywood celebrities and members of Congress, Riggenbach said. Dietz has identified a number of shared characteristics and he keeps those in mind when conducting his interviews.

Does the person display any symptoms of a mental disorder? Does he suffer delusions of grandeur? Has he acted inappropriately with others or with the same person before? Is he able to circumvent security? Does he have an interest in other stalkers or assassins? Does he keep a journal or files on his target? Does he have a fascination with weapons or has he recently purchased any weapons?

According to the U.S. Marshals web site, the marshals service also uses two databases to help determine the likelihood of a violent outcome. One of the databases includes all of the variables from the 3,000-plus cases investigated by the U.S. Marshals since the 1980s and the other is based on a system developed by Gavin de Becker, an authority on celebrity protection.

A "high percentage" of the people he encounters are mentally ill and many of the others don't pose a likely threat, Riggenbach said.

"In my experience, when an individual is confronted, they were just blowing off steam," Riggenbach said. "When they realize that they've come to the attention of the federal authorities, they tend to back down."

Riggenbach said he is monitoring three people whose comments or actions have not crossed the legal line but cannot easily be dismissed. He routinely checks with other law enforcement agencies or mental health officials to see how the person is doing and he will often conduct additional interviews with them.

The cooperation among law enforcement agencies is essential, Riggenbach said. They are constantly exchanging information about people who make inappropriate contact with celebrities or officials because they often change their targets and they often have more than one target.

In one case, Riggenbach said, a deputy U.S. Marshal from Los Angeles was contacted by a Las Vegas resident who pleaded with him to stop Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood from using astral projections on him. When Riggenbach interviewed the man, he said that "it was all a mistake, that Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood had accidentally targeted him" and had since stopped.

Riggenbach said the case was referred to Metro Police.