Woman Arrested in Threats to Judge

A Redondo Beach woman was arrested Tuesday on federal charges of sending menacing letters to a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge, including one that threatened to bomb his courthouse and another warning that his daughter and grandson would be “hung or dragged from a truck” by white supremacists.

Mimi Villegas Galdi, 35, a former dental assistant, was taken into custody by FBI agents at her home without incident.

Most of the alleged threats were directed at Judge William Beverly Jr., who is assigned to the court’s appellate division in downtown Los Angeles.

Authorities said Beverly had dismissed Galdi’s complaint against a court commissioner in Torrance who had previously enjoined her from contacting former co-workers at a dental clinic.

Her former colleagues at the Megdal clinic in Lawndale sought the injunction as a result of personal disagreements with Galdi, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Becky Walker.

The prosecutor said Galdi sent numerous letters to Beverly about her case. The first mention of violence came in a letter dated Aug. 25, 1998, in which Galdi threatened to “go on a shooting spree,” according to the indictment.

A sheriff’s investigator talked to her and the letters stopped, but they resumed this year, Walker said.

On Feb. 27, the indictment charged, Galdi sent the judge a letter threatening to bomb the courthouse and her former employer’s building.

In a March 25 letter, Galdi again threatened to bomb Beverly’s courthouse and also threatened violence against his daughter and grandson, the indictment alleged. Galdi is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center pending a bond hearing today.