By Zach Patberg
Wazir Khan, 19, is suspected of making threatening calls and sending three menacing letters to the U.S. Courthouse, located at 225 Cadman Plaza East, according to an affidavit given by FBI Special Agent Elizabeth Rosato.. Khan was arraigned Tuesday at the Brooklyn federal courthouse on charges of threatening to kill an individual and blow up a building and mailing a threatening letter to a federal judge, the U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District said. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. In one letter sent March 31, Khan allegedly threatened to “massacre” judges using a gun he claimed to have previously smuggled into the courthouse if all court cases between March 30 and Dec. 25 were not dismissed, the affidavit said. In an April 9 letter, Khan warned Justice Raymond Dearie that he would murder him for putting his brother in jail, the affidavit said. And in a final letter, dated April 11, Khan said he knew where Dearie lived and would murder him “by the end of the month…just like Atlanta” – an apparent reference to the recent slaying of a judge in Atlanta, Ga., according to the affidavit.Days after sending the last letter, Khan, using a cell phone, then allegedly made a series of calls: some directed to the clerk's office – again threatening Dearie's life -and two calls to a city 911 operator, in which he claimed to have planted a bomb on the sixth floor of the courthouse where Dearie's courtroom was located, law enforcement officials said. Along with hearing the case against Khan's brother, Dearie also was to preside over a trial scheduled to start Monday in which Khan's Guyanese mother, Bibi Asgar, faced criminal charges, the complaint revealed. According to statements he gave to authorities, Khan was at the time trying to get a new attorney for Asgar.In an intensive investigation, agents from the U.S. Marshals Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation discovered the Richmond Hill store where Khan allegedly bought the cell phone he used to make the threatening calls, according to the sworn statements. Agents then searched Khan's home at 127-18 89th Ave., where they found enough evidence to arrest the defendant, the affidavit said.”Threatening the life of any human being is a grave offense, but threatening a federal judge is also an assault on the rule of law,” said Eugene Corcoran, acting assistant director-in-charge of the FBI in New York.A spokesman for the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District said Khan was due back in court Thursday for a bail hearing.Reach reporter Zach Patberg by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 155.
