Criminal Justice

Man's false claims to have placed bombs in federal courthouse get him 6 years

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A Nevada man who falsely claimed to have placed bombs under the desks of two federal judges in a Las Vegas courthouse last year was sentenced Tuesday to 75 months in prison.

Clifford James Schuett, 60, pleaded guilty in December to threatening to kill or cause damage through the use of an explosive, reports Courthouse News.

The matter came to the attention of law enforcement when Schuett went to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Las Vegas one day last June and started talking. A subsequent search of the Lloyd George Federal Courthouse found no explosives.

Later, in a conversation with a metropolitan Las Vegas police detective, Schuett reportedly said, after his Miranda rights were read, that he had wanted to kill a federal judge who had sentenced him in an earlier case. Schuett also reportedly said he wanted to kill a second judge who, it appears, may have dismissed a case brought by Schuett.

“If I get out of county jail, I will shoot a federal judge,” Schuett allegedly told the detective, saying that his first target of choice would be the one who previously sentenced him.

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