Arizona Man Accused Of Threatening To Execute Rabbi, Jewish Community

OAN’s Elizabeth Volberding
11:38 AM – Tuesday, November 7, 2023

An Arizona man who allegedly made anti-Semitic threats has been fined for telling a rabbi at a Scottsdale synagogue that he would “kill Jewish people.”

Advertisement

On Friday, Jeffrey Mindock, 50, allegedly sent an email that included a threat to a rabbi in Scottsdale, Arizona, threatening to “execute” the rabbi and commanding him to convince a Utah judge to eliminate a criminal case against him, according to the United States Attorney’s Office of Arizona.

Mindock claimed that he wanted the rabbi to persuade a Utah judge to drop charges against him in a different case filed in the state.

According to an FBI agent that made a statement in an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint, the email sent on Friday refers to what it names “atrocities” against Palestinian people and commands for a prior Utah criminal court case against the man to be eliminated.

“If you do not use your influence to right this wrong I will execute you and every other Jew I can find at midnight of your Sabbath. If you wish to communicate with me further, I will only meet in person,” the email said, according to a criminal complaint.

“We have no tolerance for those who send threatening communications to Jewish faith leaders or to any other people in America,” U.S. Attorney Gary Restaino said in a statement. “We will continue to exercise our prosecutorial discretion and deploy our resources to charge threats cases here in Arizona.”

As a result of Friday’s emails, Mindock has been fined with one count of “knowingly transmitting in interstate or foreign commerce, with intent to threaten.”

The affidavit additionally states that Mindock has been sending menacing emails since 2020.

In 2021, the 50-year-old man was detained by police, and in August 2020 he made a complaint that said “his neighbor was weaponizing the police against Mindock,” according to the affidavit.

“The complaint further alleges that Mindock’s threatening behavior extended to another prior email threat to ‘hang’ a judge sent from email addresses containing ‘sitkevicz’ or ‘mindock,’ and another threat made during a previous court appearance in 2021 to ‘execute’ others,’” the FBI said.

“The FBI takes all threats of violence seriously,” said Chad Alvarado, acting special agent in charge of the FBI’s Phoenix field office. “The FBI and our law enforcement partners must take people who make threats at their word and intervene, because protecting human life is our absolute priority.”