Ex-Vallourec worker accused of threatening plant workers

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A Youngstown woman was arrested Friday for making threats by phone and email to employees at Vallourec Star in late March.

According to an affidavit filed in U.S. Northern District Court of Ohio, Rakieda Cheatham, 27, made threatening phone calls and emails to three employees at the plant, after her temporary employment with the company ended in late February.

Some of the emails sent on March 27 contained references to bomb threats, which resulted in the plant’s evacuation of all 653 employees from the facility for three hours until the Youngstown Police Department’s bomb squad deemed the area safe.

Cheatham could face charges for making threatening communication, and communicating false information.

She is being held in Mahoning County jail pending a preliminary examination and detention hearing before a federal magistrate on Monday.