Tenn. man charged with threatening Rep. Boccieri

Staff report

CLEVELAND

A Tennessee man has been indicted on two charges stemming from a threat he made to burn down the house of U.S. Rep John Boccieri of Alliance, D-16th.

Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, said the threat came while legislators were debating the health care bill. Boccieri was one of eight Democrats who switched positions and voted for the president’s proposal.

James L. Schmidlin, 40, of Cleveland, Tenn., was taken into custody Thursday night after a grand jury in Cleveland, Ohio, returned a sealed indictment on charges of communications involving threats of arson and harassing telephone calls.

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