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Inmate Pleads Guilty to Threatening Federal Magistrate in Monroe

A prisoner has pleaded guilty to sending threatening messages to a federal magistrate in Monroe.
 

U.S. Attorney Stephanie A. Finley, in a news release, says 27-year-old Charles Lidberg, a prisoner at the Dixon Correctional Center in Jackson, Louisiana, entered the plea last Tuesday to one count of making threatening communications.

 
Finley's office says Lidberg, who was serving time for an unrelated crime, mailed a letter on Feb. 19, 2014 to U.S. Magistrate Karen L. Hayes' office stating that he would hunt down and kill her after he was released. Lidberg said a friend promised him $500,000 to kill Hayes if she sentenced the friend to more than 10 years in prison. He did not identify the friend, saying that would "take the fun out of this."
 

He gave a second letter threatening Hayes to another inmate who turned it over to law enforcement.

 
Lidberg faces 10 years in prison and a $5 million fine. Sentencing is set for Dec. 7.