Man Indicted on Eight Counts of Sending Threatening Letters and
E-mails to African-American Males Known to Associate with White Females

William J. Edwards, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, and C. Frank Figliuzzi, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Cleveland, Ohio, today announced that a eight-count indictment was filed charging David A. Tuason of Pepper Pike, Ohio, with two counts of transmitting threatening interstate communications and six counts of mailing threatening communications.

The indictment alleges that Tuason engaged in an elaborate scheme of sending racially- motivated threatening communications via the United States Postal Service and electronic mail intended to threaten and intimidate with bodily injury African-American males known to affiliate with white females. The indictment alleges that an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, athletes, and entertainers received threatening communications. The indictment also alleges that at times, children of mixed racial parents were also targeted. The indictment alleges that the threatening communications were sent to victims across the United States as well as locally in the Cleveland, Ohio area.

The indictment alleges that Tuason, at times, threatened to blow up the facility or building in which the targeted victim was located. The indictment does not use the full names of the victims as federal law, Title 18, United States Code, Section 3771(a)(8), encourages prosecutors to respect victims' privacy rights. The Department of Justice requests that everyone respect these rights.

The maximum potential penalty for conviction on the threatening communication charge is 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release following any period of incarceration on the count involving the Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court and five years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release on each of the other counts. The court may determine the actual sentence under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which depend upon a number of factors unique to each case, including the defendant's prior criminal record, if any, his role in the offense and the characteristics of the violation. The actual sentence may be less than the statutory maximum.

The case was presented to the grand jury and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Dean M. Valore and Benita Y. Pearson following an extensive multi-year investigation by the FBI's Civil Rights Squad in the Cleveland Field Office.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial at which it will be the government's burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.