Ohio man sent 200 hate letters

Tuason said his emotions were triggered by people he’d see in the media.

CLEVELAND (AP) — A man who wrote racially hateful letters to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter was sentenced Tuesday to three years and 10 months in prison.

David Tuason apologized for his behavior in federal court, saying he was disgusted by his own actions and never meant to hurt anybody. He said he sent the threatening letters because a black man “stole” the girlfriend he planned to marry.

Tuason, 46, said he was overwhelmed with loneliness and despair because he didn’t have a family.

“Eating three meals a day with nobody — it’s the most horrible thing in the world,” he said.

Tuason, who is of Filipino descent, sent more than 200 hateful letters or e-mails over 20 years, many to black or mixed-race men seen with white women. The messages contained threats of violence based on racial hatred.

Hundreds of other letters were found in March when federal agents searched Tuason’s bedroom at his parents’ home in suburban Pepper Pike, said assistant U.S. attorney Dean Valore.

“This conduct would have continued for 20 more years,” Valore said.

Tuason had faced up to 10 years in prison. He pleaded guilty in May to six counts of mailing threatening communications and two counts of threatening interstate communications.

He sent letters to high school, college and professional athletes, coaches, musicians, news anchors, hospitals, police departments and lawyers, according to his plea deal.

Some of the celebrities who were targeted hired 24-hour security, Valore said. He noted one of Tuason’s victims, a mixed-race girl, suffered severe amounts of stress that included sleepless nights and an inability to concentrate on her studies.

“Some of them will never recover,” U.S. District Judge Donald C. Nugent said. “That’s about as bad as it gets.”

Nugent, who scoffed at a pre-sentence investigation that didn’t deem Tuason to be anti-social, asked Tuason how he selected his victims.

Tuason said he’d see people in the media that triggered his emotions over losing his girlfriend. He said he believes all races are equal. “I never really meant what I said,” he said.

He told the judge he wants a chance to redeem himself by working at an urban hospital.

Tuason, who has a medical degree from a school in the Philippines, has never practiced medicine in the U.S., Valore said. Tuason worked odd jobs and had long been unemployed.

He will be on supervised release for three years after his incarceration. During that time, the government may monitor his computer and mail.

The FBI had long been trying to find the source of the letters. Authorities say agents found Tuason after he started sending messages via e-mail in January from a public library instead of through U.S. mail. The FBI then gathered video evidence of him mailing letters, Valore said, and he was arrested March 14.

In his bedroom, agents found rubber gloves and an IBM typewriter — its font matched letters Tuason sent in the late 1980s, Valore said.

According to the April 9 indictment, Tuason sent a letter to the Supreme Court on July 25, 2003, addressed to an associate justice of the court referred to as “CT.” The indictment used only the initials of victims.

In the letter, which contained several racially derogatory remarks, the writer threatened to blow up the Supreme Court building and wrote that “CT” would be “castrated, shot or set on fire ... I want him killed.”

Tuason looked sadly at family members upon entering and exiting the courtroom Tuesday. A male family member declined to comment after the hearing.