Peoria man sentenced to prison for threatening to kill federal judge

A Peoria man was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in federal prison last week after he threatened to kill a judge presiding over a civil rights case he filed in 2022.

Paul Joseph Klawer, 34, was sentenced on Aug. 21 before U.S. Northern District Court Judge Lindsay C. Jenkins after he pled guilty in April to one count of threatening a federal official.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of Illinois , Klawer was representing himself pro se in a civil rights case against the Tazewell County Sheriff's Office filed in 2022 regarding an accusation of attempted murder against his mother that he felt the department hadn't fully investigated.

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In November 2023, court documents indicate that the attorney for Tazewell County received what he felt were concerning emails sent to him from Klawer's address. The emails accused Central District Judge Colin Bruce of suppressing misconduct evidence against the department and said that if he didn't stop the supposed suppression, he would kill both him and his family.

Over the next few days, Klawer sent emails to this attorney threatening to kill him and others if he didn't return his children to him by Dec. 6. The U.S. Attorney's Office said that Klawer also threatened to blow up the headquarters of the Illinois Department of Human Services in Springfield if he didn't get his way.

Klawer was arrested on Dec. 7 and has been held in custody of U.S. Marshals since then. He initially pled not guilty before quickly changing his plea in April. Unlike the civil rights case, Klawer was represented by federal public defender Karl Bryning.

Jenkins said at sentencing that Klawer had "degraded" the justice system by sending specific and "disgusting" threats to Bruce and the attorneys. She felt that his threats endangered people in the justice system just trying to fulfill their life's work.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald Hanna, who prosecuted the case, said that acts like the ones Klawer committed would not be tolerated in the Central District or anywhere.

"The judiciary is designed to be insulated from intimidation, harassment, and fear of retribution so judges can render fair, impartial and independent decisions," Hanna said in a news release. "The defendant’s actions were an attack on the justice system itself. We will not tolerate actors like Klawer who try to use fear and intimidation to get their way."

Klawer had been facing up to 10 years in prison and three years of supervised release. The U.S. Marshals, the FBI Field Office in Springfield, Illinois State Police and the police department in Northbrook, Illinois ‒ where Tazewell County's attorneys were based out of ‒ all investigated the case.

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This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Peoria man sentenced to prison for threatening to kill federal judge