Thread: Wisconsin woman charged for death threats to state senators

Wisconsin woman Katherine Windels charged for threats to state senators

9:16 PM, Mar. 31, 2011 | 27Comments

MADISON — A Wisconsin woman accused of emailing death threats to GOP state lawmakers during the Capitol debate over the collective bargaining law was charged Thursday with two felonies.

Katherine Windels, 26, was charged with two counts of creating a bomb scare, along with two misdemeanor counts of computer-based threats to injure or harm. The charges carry a combined maximum penalty of 7.5 years in prison.

The criminal complaint accuses the Cross Plains woman of sending two emails to senators threating to shoot them and plant bombs around their homes.

The first message sent March 9 to Sen. Robert Cowles of Green Bay said the sender and others had decided to kill the Republican senator by "arriving at your house and putting a nice little bullet in your head," the complaint said. The email also claimed the group had planted bombs around the senator’s house and car and the Capitol building.

A similar email with the same threats was sent to other Republican senators two hours later. Both emails chastised the lawmakers for voting earlier that day for the budget repair bill, which strips most public employees of collective bargaining rights. The emails also praised Republican Sen. Dale Schultz of Green Bay, who was not sent a threat, as "heroic" for voting against it.

The emails were sent from a computer account that appeared to belong to someone named Lisa Patterson. Police contacted Patterson, who said she didn’t set up the account, the complaint said.

Authorities eventually tracked the computer’s IP address — the unique number assigned to every computer that connects to the Internet — to Windels’ parents. Police approached Windels, who allegedly admitted she sent the emails but said she never meant to carry out the attacks.

Calls by The Associated Press to Windels’ house were not answered.

Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne said Windels had not yet been served with the complaint.

The complaint was filed hours after the Department of Justice expressed concern that Ozanne had not yet filed charges against the suspect. Windels is the only person charged so far for threats against the lawmakers.

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/art ... y=nav|head

Woman arrested for threatening emails sent to Wisconsin legislators
April 1st, 2011 2:26 am ET .
James Simpson DC Independent Examiner.

MUG SHOT AT LINK.

26 year-old Katherine R. Windels has been arrested for sending emails containing death threats to Wisconsin state senators during the budget battles last month.

According to the Milwauakee Journal Sentinel:

Windels was charged with two felony counts "bomb scare" and two misdemeanor counts of "computer message-threatening injury/bodily harm." If convicted, each felony count carries a maximum penalty of three years and six months in prison and a $10,000 fine, and each misdemeanor count carries a maximum penalty of 90 days in prison and a $1,000 fine.

Her e-mails got a lot of play when they first appeared. They were particularly vicious. Here is the complete text of one:



[i]From: XXXX
Sent: Wed 3/9/2011 9:18 PM
To: Sen.Kapanke; Sen.Darling; Sen.Cowles; Sen.Ellis; Sen.Fitzgerald; Sen.Galloway; Sen.Grothman; Sen.Harsdorf; Sen.Hopper; Sen.Kedzie; Sen.Lasee; Sen.Lazich; Sen.Leibham; Sen.Moulton; Sen.Olsen
Subject: Atten: Death threat!!!! Bomb!!!!

Please put your things in order because you will be killed and your familes will also be killed due to your actions in the last 8 weeks. Please explain to them that this is because if we get rid of you and your families then it will save the rights of 300,000 people and also be able to close the deficit that you have created. I hope you have a good time in hell. Read below for more information on possible scenarios in which you will die.

WE want to make this perfectly clear. Because of your actions today and in the past couple of weeks I and the group of people that are working with me have decided that we’ve had enough. We feel that you and the people that support the dictator have to die. We have tried many other ways of dealing with your corruption but you have taken things too far and we will not stand for it any longer. So, this is how it’s going to happen: I as well as many others know where you and your family live, it’s a matter of public records.

We have all planned to assult you by arriving at your house and putting a nice little bullet in your head. However, we decided that we wouldn’t leave it there. We also have decided that this may not be enough to send the message to you since you are so “highâ€