A 59-year-old Riverside woman was sentenced to almost three years in federal prison for making antisemitic threats against the former executive director of a Pittsburgh synagogue, the site of a mass shooting in 2018, and his family members.
Melanie Harris was sentenced to 32 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to transmitting a threatening communication in interstate commerce, the United States Department of Justice announced Friday, May 24.
Harris’ threats “terrorized a Jewish family,” said U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida.
For over four years, Harris harassed and threatened three victims by making more than 240 calls to the former executive director, leaving messages and engaging in conversations in which she unleashed antisemitic hate and direct threats against him, his family and Jews in general, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
In the calls and voicemails, Harris made incessant references to the congregants murdered in the October 2018 massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, prosecutors said.
According to the facts admitted at her change-of-plea hearing, Harris made multiple calls on Oct. 3, 2022 to the former executive director’s cell phone and left four separate, threatening voicemails. In one of the four voicemails, Harris said “I’ll cut your (expletive) head off” and used an anti-Jewish slur.
Harris concealed her phone number from being detected by a caller identification system, leaving the victims bereft of any knowledge of who and where the harasser was, putting them in continual fear for their lives until Harris’ arrest in March 2023, prosecutors said.
The calls originated from Riverside, where Harris lived at the time, and were received in South Florida.
On the same day that Harris began her calls to the former executive director, she also began calling the Tree of Life, leaving virtually identical hate-filled antisemitic messages referencing the deaths of elderly worshipers, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
The FBI’s Miami Area Corruption Task Force, which also investigates civil rights violations, investigated the case. FBI Pittsburgh, FBI Los Angeles Riverside Resident Agency and the Riverside Police Department assisted in the investigation.
“Melanie Harris sent threatening communications to a Jewish family using vile and inflammatory language. The nature of her threats of violence towards the victims and their faith were clearly meant to evoke a climate of fear and intimidation. Such conduct cannot be tolerated,” said Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey B. Veltri of the FBI Miami Field Office.
“Violence through words or actions is unacceptable and the FBI will continue to do everything we can to identify, arrest, and bring to justice those who engage in similar conduct,” Veltri said.
Anyone with information about a possible threat or who believes they are the victim of a victim of a hate crime can contact 911 and the FBI at fbi.gov/tips or at 800-225-5324.
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