Editorials

Man gets five years for anthrax threat

The Associated Press
Saturday January 19, 2002

OAKLAND — A Livermore man convicted of threatening to release anthrax into the federal building in Oakland was sentenced to five years in prison Friday. 

Charles Redden, 33, was indicted by a grand jury on April 20, 2000, for calling the clerk’s office for the U.S. District Court in January 1999 and saying anthrax had been released into the building’s air conditioning system. The threat was a hoax. 

Redden will begin the sentence after he finishes serving a sentence for a previous conviction in Hawaii. 

Redden’s threat came before the tougher federal sentences for bioterrorism crimes. Under the new guidelines, someone convicted of sending a biological or chemical agent through the mail could face 30 years to life in prison. Before the new rules, the maximum sentence was 17 1/2 years. 

Sentencing guidelines also have been stiffened for those who threaten such crimes.