New Jersey Man Pleads Guilty To Sending Racist Messages To Marylander
BALTIMORE (WJZ) – A New Jersey man has pleaded guilty to using an anonymizing text message service to send racist messages to a Black Marylander and threaten her family, according to federal authorities.
Michael Marotta, 26, said in his plea agreement that he used the message system to threaten to hurt the woman and her family in Maryland on April 14, 2020.
In the message, he used racial epithets to describe her and her family. He threatened to come to their home and physically harm them, federal authorities said.
"I know where you live now," he told the woman. He also told her "I'm coming to rape your family" and "eat my bullets," among other things, according to authorities.
But Marotta said in his plea agreement that he did not know the recipient-victim of his messages.
She says she doesn't know him either.
He now faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison though. A federal district court judge will decide his sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors, federal authorities said.
Marotta will be sentenced on May 25, according to authorities.
"The vile threats issued by this defendant have no place in civilized society," Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, said. "The department, and specifically the Civil Rights Division, will use all tools at our disposal to ensure that people who interfere with the rights of others will be brought to justice."
