WHITE PLAINS – A White Plains man was found guilty of making threats against Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner and his family in 2017.
White Plains City Court Judge Jo Ann Friia convicted Timothy Goetze, 44, of three counts of aggravated harassment as misdemeanors.
The judge sentenced Goetze on Thursday to a one-year conditional discharge with 75 hours of community service and orders of protection for Feiner, his wife and his daughter.
In August 2017, Greenburgh Police investigated three threatening emails sent anonymously to Feiner. They were prompted by a controversy regrading a confederate monument at a private cemetery.
The content of the three emails was identical but contained a different subject line: “Human Rights Education,” “Letter to the Ugly Dumb Jew,” and “Letter to Parasite.” Among other things the writer used profanities and directed numerous anti-Semitic slurs to Feiner.
The final sentence in the emails bore the threat – “You better run and hide you stupid f—king Jew. We are coming for you and your family,” signed “Anti-Zionist.”
An investigation led to Goetze as the sender.
In court, his sole defense was on First Amendment/free speech grounds. The court ruled against that theory, stating the emails were not mainly political statements; rather the content was largely a personal attack on Feiner and his family and that constituted a “true threat.”
“This verdict against Mr. Goetze is an important outcome which illustrates how we seek justice whenever there is a threat to a public figure or any residents of Westchester,” said District Attorney Anthony Scarpino, Jr. “Threatening messages will always be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Let anyone who might make such threats know we will go after them.”
