Thanks to the sharp eyes of a “concerned citizen” scrolling Facebook in Florida this week, police announced that they have arrested and charged a Boca Raton resident, John Mandia, with making murderous threats to judges and prosecutors.
The 54-year-old man was arrested on Feb. 26 shortly after police received the tip, a probable cause affidavit shows. The irate missive on his profile page read: “Yo. What happened to Trump happened to me first … Yo lets go kill some judges and prosecutors in Palm Beach I’m coming and you can’t do a f—— thing about it.”
According to prosecutors and police, the disgruntled attitude is nothing new. When officers interviewed Mandia’s daughter after receiving the tip, they learned that she had seen the post on Facebook and went straight to her mother who then alerted police. Police allege that the woman detailed her “significant concerns” about Mandia’s past including alleged substance abuse issues.
“Further research revealed that Mandia had also made a post a few weeks earlier, on 1/15/2024, which expressed his desire to kill Judge Suskauer and Judge Scher,” a police affidavit states.
Judge Scott Suskauer presides at the circuit court in Palm Beach and Judge Rosemarie Scher is a family court judge.
“I did 2 years in prison … My ex-wife lie, and ABUSED THE LAWS OF FLORIDA,” Mandia wrote. [Emphasis original] “THEY THREW ME IN PRISON BECAUSE THE ALMIGHTY JUDGE WAS INSULTED I MADE THAT TEXT … YO JUDGE … I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE … YOU BETTER HAVE YOUR HEAD ON A SWIVEL BECAUSE THIS RANGER IS COMING FOR YOU!!!!!”
Mandia’s ex told police officers it was Scher who granted her a restraining order against Mandia two years ago and it was Suskauer who sentenced him to prison after he was found in violation of the restraining order. Mandia was sentenced to serve a year and a day as a result on aggravated stalking charges, the Palm Beach Post reported.
Notably, in the police report, the investigating officer said that a reply to Mandia’s post warned him he might regret his actions.
“Be careful my friend. You may land up back in prison for threatening a judge. People are stupid.”
Mandia was insistent. In his own response, he told his friend that he just wanted to “shed light on this” and “go public” and that he was ready to “go down in that blaze of glory if necessary.”
“That “f—— judge took [my] life away now that motherf—– c— of a judges life is mine,” he wrote.
He also said he was “ready to die” and that he had no problem “hunting that judge and prosecutor down,” who handled his and his ex-wife’s case.
It was that language that spurred the three criminal charges against Mandia, records show, including three counts of written threats to kill/do bodily harm.
Mandia remains jailed in Palm Beach County and a public defender has been appointed to his case. He is next due in court on April 18.
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