ST. LOUIS — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - Illinois, Southern), published as received.

ST. LOUIS – A federal judge gave an incarcerated man the statutory maximum sentence of ten more years in prison Thursday, after the man admitted to sending death threats to a judge and former probation officer and blow up the Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse in St. Louis.

Richard L. Russell, 58, pleaded guilty to two counts of retaliating against a federal official, two counts of mailing threatening communications and one count of threatening to destroy a building by fire or explosion.

“Judges and probation officers serve the public by upholding the rule of law and supervising offenders in the court system. To threaten their lives for doing their jobs in abhorrent,” said U.S. Attorney Rachelle Aud Crowe. “This offender will spend another decade in prison for sending death threats and making threats of violence.”

According to court documents, Russell was serving a 112-month sentence since January 2013 in the Bureau of Prisons after being charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri for mailing threatening communications and threatening to murder a U.S. magistrate judge.

On June 1, 2022, officials at the Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse received two similarly handwritten letters containing death threats addressed to a sitting federal judge and retired probation officer that were each signed by Russell. A deputy U.S. marshal recovered the letters and envelopes.

Russell sent the letters to retaliate against the individuals who has previously worked on his court cases. He threatened the judge who sentenced him to 112 months’ imprisonment and the former probation officer who supervised him. Russell mailed the letters from the Grady County Criminal Justice Authority, a BOP transfer facility located in Chickasaw, Oklahoma.

Federal judges, probation officers and prosecutors with the Eastern District of Missouri were recused from this case. The U.S. Marshals Service led the investigation, and Steve Weinhoeft of the Southern District of Illinois served as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney and prosecuted the case.