Man Is Accused of Threatening Judge

A would-be screenwriter who brought an unsuccessful federal lawsuit against Creative Artists Agency has been arrested on charges of sending threatening letters to veteran U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian in Los Angeles, authorities said Thursday.

Jeffrey L. Clemens, 42, was taken into custody Wednesday at his parents’ home in Huron, Ohio, and was being held pending the outcome of a psychiatric evaluation.

Clemens is charged with mailing threatening letters to Tevrizian in February and again this month suggesting that the jurist might meet an untimely death.

Through a random selection process, Clemens’ lawsuit was assigned to Tevrizian. The jurist recused himself from the case shortly after it was filed and had nothing more to do with it.

Nevertheless, Clemens believed that Tevrizian conspired with other federal judges to sabotage his legal action, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit.

Clemens’ arrest comes amid heightened concern about the protection of federal judges, owing to the Feb. 28 shooting deaths of the husband and mother of U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow in Chicago.

The affidavit said that, in February, Tevrizian received a facetious letter from Clemens saying, in part, “You should not worry or be concerned whatsoever that some guy is going to walk up behind you, wherever you may be, and proceed to ‘lay your brains out on the ground’ although it is my wish.”

Attached to the letter was an except from a screenplay Clemens claimed to be writing. It described a scene in which a homicide detective is confronted by the murders of four judges, all shot in the head, inside their homes.

An FBI agent located Clemens in April in Hinsdale, Mass., and interviewed him, according to the affidavit.

Clemens said he believed that Tevrizian and other Los Angeles federal judges were crooked and should be removed.

Clemens also was asked about allegedly threatening letters he had sent in 2003 and 2004 to U.S. District Judges William Keller and Christina A. Snyder.

He insisted that none of the letters were intended as death threats and that his screenplay described a hypothetical situation.

No action was taken against him at the time, but he was admonished to stop writing threatening letters or he would be arrested.

On Friday, authorities said, Tevrizian received another threatening letter from Clemens.

“It seems there is some concern whether I am plotting a sweet revenge,” he was quoted as stating. “This, of course, is true indeed.”

Federal marshals escorted Tevrizian home from the courthouse and provided security at his home over the next several days.

When they went to arrest Clemens in Massachusetts, they learned that he had moved.

He was subsequently taken into custody at his parents’ home.