Mass. man jailed after threat to burn black churches

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Jeffrey Smith, 46, has been sentenced to fifteen months in federal prison after sending letters threatening to burn black churches and NAACP offices in three states.

“I do not like African-American or minorities in charge as supervisors of my security department at Novartis, nor I like them as President of the United States”, said Smith in one letter obtained by the Medford Patch. “For that I am going to burn down your offices just let you know how I feel. What right does some black person [have] to be in charge of me.”

He claims he was distressed from his work as a late night janitor and feared job loss, so he wrote the letters in the name of his supervisor. A total of 31 letters were sent in fall 2009.

Smith has plead guilty on all eleven counts of making a threat to destroy a building by use of fire, and two counts of mailing threatening communication. He threatened to burn down seven predominantly black churches in Cambridge, Roxbury and Medford, Massachusetts; Providence, R.I. and Charlotte, N.C. He also threatened to burn down NAACP offices in those cities.

Smith was sentenced yesterday and was later released by the prison where he has been held since April 15th, 2010. He is now in the custody of Massachusetts Department of Mental Health and will be on probation until 2014 according to the FBI.