A 74-year-old Long Island man was arrested Friday morning for allegedly threatening to assault and murder two U.S. senators over their support for Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court.
According to a criminal complaint unsealed after his arrest, Ronald Derisi of Smithtown left “more than 10 threatening voice messages” for the two elected officials, dating as far back as the end of September.
The voicemails, according to the complaint, were made using a prepaid cell phone and explicitly aimed to “discourage” the two senators from voting for Kavanaugh and—following the judge’s confirmation—“as retaliation for having voted” for him.
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The federal complaint stated that in one of two messages left for a senator on Sept. 27, 2018, DeRisi said that he had a “present” for the lawmaker, implying he was going to shoot him.
“It’s a nine millimeter. Side of your fucking skull, you scumbag motherfucker,” DeRisi allegedly said, ending the call by adding: “Yeah, Kavanaugh—I don’t think so.”
DeRisi allegedly left another message for the same senator less than an hour: “We’re tired of this guy. Sucking tax payers’ money! Getting a free fucking ride! How many more years you gonna do it? None! He’s a dead man. Nine millimeter, side of the fucking head! If fucking Kavanaugh gets in, he’s dead fucking meat! Actually, even if Kavanaugh doesn’t get in, he’s dead fucking meat!”
In another message left for one of the senators earlier this month, the Long Island man allegedly said: “You fucking twit, you better pray this guy don’t get in. You fucking moron.”
Less than an hour-and-a-half later, DeRisi allegedly called again and left another threat: “Listen, you dumb son of a bitch, don’t you know that guy’s a sex offender? How could you not know that. You fucking twit. I’m going to get you.”
During his confirmation process, Judge Kavanaugh was accused of sexual misconduct by three separate women, including former classmate Christine Blasey Ford, who said that when he was a teenager he sexually assaulted her at a house party., allegedly pinning her down at a party and attempting to sexually assault her. Following a brief FBI investigation, Kavanaugh was confirmed, despite widespread protests.
Authorities were able to trace the calls to DeRisi via phone records and voice exemplars, the complaint stated.
After Kavanaugh’s confirmation on Oct. 7, the 74-year-old allegedly called one of the senators around 3:30 p.m. and vented to his voicemail: “What the fuck was that? What the hell? What if this is that [senator], that fucking twit.”
He called back the next day to thank the senator—left identified in court documents—for putting “a sexual predator on the Supreme Court.”
“Representative democracy cannot work if elected officials are threatened with death for simply doing their job,” Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a Friday press release. “The First Amendment—the pinnacle of American achievement—protects debate, disagreement and dissent, not death threats. We and all those dedicated to the rule of law will not tolerate the use violence and threats of violence in attempts to prevail in political disputes.”
Following DeRisi’s arrest on Friday, the United States Capitol Police issued a search warrant and confiscated the cellphone he allegedly used to place the violent calls.
“I greatly appreciate the hard work of our investigators for addressing these threats so quickly, and that of the U.S. Attorney’s staff for prosecuting this case,” Matthew R. Verderosa, United States Capitol Police chief, said in the Friday press release.
This is DeRisi’s second phone-related criminal act. In 2011, the Long Island man was arrested for allegedly causing more than $100,000 in damage after cutting cellphone tower cables in a local gated community. He was charged with two felony counts of tampering and criminal mischief, and was issued a summons for the damage.
At the time, CBS News reported that DeRisi sent a frustrated email to the town supervisor when the tower was under construction, saying, “How did you manage to have a cell site tower installed overlooking our community that will shower us with RF radiation 24 hours a day? Not to mention how our home values will plummet. This needs to stop now.”
DeRisi is scheduled to appear Friday before United States Magistrate Judge Gary R. Brown at the federal courthouse in Central Islip, Long Island. His attorney, Peter Brill, did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.
—Pervaiz Shallwani contributed reporting.
