Broward Woman Who Prompted Lockdown Pleads Guilty
FT. LAUDERDALE (CBS4) - The South Florida woman accused of sending threatening emails which led to a massive lockdown of Broward schools last year has pled guilty in federal court.
With a smile on her face 48-year old Ellisa Martinez admitted that she sent the email which caused a security scare across Broward County.
Last November all 300 county schools and several government buildings were placed on lockdown after an e-mail was sent to radio show host Joyce Kaufman. It warned that "something big" would happen at a government building or school.
"It was our kids who were terrorized on that day, it was our teachers who were terrorized that day," recalled Kaufman.
According to the federal complaint filed Nov. 12th, the writer of the e-mail claimed to be "planning something big around a government building here in Broward County, maybe a post office, maybe even a school, I'm going to walk in and teach all the government hacks working there what the 2nd amendment is all about."
Read The Criminal Complaint Against Ellisa Martinez
The e-mail said the writer liked that Kaufman had encouraged people to "exercise our second amendment rights."
Kaufman believes the threat was sent to her in response to a comment she made during a political rally over the summer for West. The comment, which was replayed on MSNBC in the days preceding the threats, quoted Kaufman as saying, "if ballots don't work, bullets will."
Martinez then reportedly called the Pompano Beach station later that morning and claimed that her husband, Bill Johnson, was going to go to a school in Pembroke Pines and start shooting, according to federal authorities who said they traced the call.
Martinez's attorney, Sam Randall, said her so called threats were a big misunderstanding.
"She was trying to make a point to Ms. Kaufman. She was very concerned about the rhetoric Ms. Kaufman was using publically," said Randall. "She was trying to be sarcastic and I don't think her sarcasm was as obvious as she thought it was."
"I think that this is bizarre, I think it's the attorney's attempt to try to case what she did in a night other than it is. This is domestic terrorism," said Kaufman.
Randall said Martinez's guilty plea may not end the case. He wants a judge to determine why her comments were considered threatening and Kaufman's talk of bullets and ballots are protected speech.
"I've given hundreds of speeches, no one has ever committed an act violence as a result of my speech, no one has ever done anything that's gotten them arrest as a result of my speech. So making the comparison is a stretch," said Kaufman.
Kaufman, who stumped for Congressman Allen West during last fall's campaign, stepped down as West's chief of staff a day after the lockdown, saying she wanted to avoid any repercussions against him.
Sentencing was set for July 14. While the charge of making a threat in interstate commerce carries prison sentence of up to five years, Randall said sentencing guidelines would put Martinez in the 12-month to 18-month range.
