Man who mailed threats to appear in court

Staff report

CLEVELAND

A Cortland man accused of threatening to blow up the offices of his “selfish, greedy, money-hungry” insurance provider appeared Monday afternoon for arraignment in a federal courtroom.

Ronald L. Ellis, 64, of Ivy Hill Circle, faces one federal count of mailing threatening communications for an expletive-laden letter authorities said he wrote to United Healthcare’s appeals and grievances office in June.

“You pay this [expletive] claim or I will rain down such blind hatred, fury and rage the likes of which you will never see again in the full extent of your further existence on this ... planet, you selfish, greedy, money-hungry leeches feeding off the money of humankind,” he wrote.

Agents from the FBI and Mahoning Valley Violent Crimes Task Force arrested Ellis on June 21 at his apartment. He didn’t deny sending the letter, according to his federal complaint.

He was released June 27 from the Trumbull County jail.