Huntsville man to face jail time for reporting false threats against President Obama

HUNTSVILLE - A federal judge today sentenced a Huntsville man to four months in prison and ordered him immediately taken into custody on charges he reported false threats against President Barack Obama, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and U.S. Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Roy Sexton.

U.S. District Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn sentenced Charles Thurman II, 54, to prison, fined him $1,000 and ordered he be placed on supervised release for three years after he serves his prison term.

Thurman pleaded guilty in April to charges that he had sent e-mails to the White House claiming another man was threatening the life of the president. Each e-mail was sent from a different e-mail address, but contained the same information.  The person identified in the e-mails as having made the threats was a process server who had tried to serve a summons on Thurman.

The Secret Service investigated the case and determined that Thurman had sent all the e-mails. The investigation also revealed the threatening statements were false and created by Thurman. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Angela Redmond Debro.