MINNESOTA
A federal judge sentenced a 24-year-old man to six months in prison for threatening to maim and shoot workers at two reproductive health services clinics in Minneapolis, officials announced Thursday.
On Monday, Michael John Harris, 34, was sentenced in federal court.
“The violence threatened by this defendant against health care workers is unacceptable,” said U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger of the District of Minnesota. “This sentence should serve as a reminder to individuals who would engage in such threats that the federal government will prosecute these crimes.”
On March 2, 2016, Harris pleaded guilty, admitting that on May 12, 2014, he made telephonic threats to two different health clinics in Minneapolis that provide reproductive health services.
In a call to the first clinic, Harris threatened to kill the recipient of the call with his bare hands and to cut the recipient’s head off with a band saw, according to officials.
In a call to the second clinic, Harris told the recipient that he was going to kill the recipient and her co-workers. He said he was going to the clinic and shoot everyone there.
Harris further admitted that he made these threats in order to intimidate the recipient and any other person from, obtaining and providing reproductive health services.
“This defendant threatened these clinic workers with death and brutality,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Tom Wheeler of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The department is pleased that the defendant accepted responsibility and will face consequences for his actions. The Department is committed to vigorously enforcing the civil rights of all individuals in this country.”