A Massachusetts man threatened violence and demanded disability benefits in an online message he sent to the Social Security Administration’s fraud reporting website, federal prosecutors said.
In the same message, Michael Andrew Rodgers made a threat against children and an unspecified school, according to prosecutors.
His threats led authorities to arrest him on Sept. 16, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced in a news release.
Rodgers, 31, of Windsor, is charged with one count of threatening interstate communications and one count of extortionate interstate communications, according to prosecutors. Windsor is about a 140-mile drive northwest from Boston.
“The charges against Mr. Rodgers involve very serious and terrifying threats designed to instill fear and extort his victims,” acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy said in a statement.
Information regarding Rodger’s legal representation wasn’t listed in court records the afternoon of Sept. 17.
On April 6, Rodgers visited a webpage for the SSA’s Office of the Inspector General that allows people to report fraud and tried to extort disability benefits, prosecutors said. The agency’s office independently investigates fraud and misconduct.
In a message he submitted to the webpage, according to the indictment, Rodgers wrote: “I m gonna start taking what I need. By any means (necessary). I ve had no funds for almost a year. I tried working and got (expletive) on my taxes …”
“GIVE ME MY MONEY OR IM GONNA START DROPPING PEOPLE. … NEXT TIME I SLICE SOMETHING OPEN. IT WONT BE ME. ITLL BE ONE OF YOUR CHILDREN ILL MERC A WHOLE SCHOOL,” the message also said in part, the indictment shows.
The year before, Rodgers left a menacing online Google review for a medical practice in Springfield, writing, “They gonna get what’s coming soon” and “Will be there in the morning to get them myself one way or another. Locked and loaded,” prosecutors said.
In the post, Rodgers added a photo of a hand holding a gun, according to prosecutors.
“While the First Amendment gives us the right to express our own opinions, violent physical threats are certainly not protected speech,” Jodi Cohen, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston division, said in a statement.
Rodgers was released from custody on certain conditions, which weren’t specified, after he appeared in court on Sept, 16, prosecutors said.
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