Ohio murderer accused of threatening federal judge

May 6, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

AKRON

A convicted murderer in an Ohio prison has been accused of threatening to kill a federal judge and his family and to blow up federal buildings.

An indictment against Clifton Cousins, 41, who also goes by Abdullah Jihad Al-Malik, was filed Tuesday, three years after he was sentenced to five years in a federal prison for making threats against the president and his family. The new indictment accuses him of making a threat through the mail, threatening a federal judge, threatening a federal judge’s family and threatening to damage or destroy a federal building.

Investigators say Cousins made threats in 2006 and 2009 letters sent to U.S. District Judge David Dowd Jr., who sits in Akron and sentenced Cousins in the presidential threat case.

Dowd sentenced Cousins in 2005 to a four-year term, which was later overturned, leading the judge to hand down a five-year sentence in 2007. The sentence is to be served after Cousins finishes his term at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, where he is serving up to life.