Ohio woman faces felony charges for alleged racist death threats to Michigan lawmakers
Sandra Bachman, 58, is accused of leaving threatening voicemails for Democrats Rep. Sarah Anthony and Rep. Cynthia Johnson.
Sandra Bachman, a 58-year-old woman in Batavia, Ohio, is facing a lengthy prison sentence after being charged with two felonies for her racist and threatening voicemails to two Black Michigan lawmakers.
According to The Detroit Free Press, the incidents happened in the spring of 2021, when Bachman allegedly left the messages for Democratic Rep. Sarah Anthony, of Lansing, in May, then Democratic Rep. Cynthia Johnson, of Detroit, the following month.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel pursued charges in the case and recently charged Bachman with one count of false report or threat of terrorism, one count of ethnic intimidation and two other counts related to making a threat using a phone. Anthony thanked Nessel for her diligence, according to the report.
“The division in our country, and in Michigan especially, has continued to build and develop over the last few years to a point where it’s getting in the way of our democracy and distracting us from good governance,” Anthony said in a statement.
“We are at a point in time where we just have to tone down the temperature and choose to lead with respect, even if we disagree,” she continued. “There is no room for this type of vitriolic language or hatred in politics, or any public space.”
Threats against Michigan lawmakers, the report says, have been on the rise since the 2020 presidential election. The state was one that flipped blue for Joe Biden and was implicated in the stolen-election “Big Lie” pushed by former President Donald Trump and his supporters. That same year, the FBI thwarted a plot to kidnap the state’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer, by members of a white militia group.
“This rise in threats against elected officials will not be tolerated,” said Nessel. “Those who think hiding behind a phone or keyboard will prevent them from facing criminal charges are severely mistaken. I appreciate the work done across state lines to bring accountability in this case.”
Bachman will be arraigned on March 31 in a Lansing courtroom. She faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
The attorney general released some of the language from the voicemails Bachman is accused of leaving, including one line for Anthony in which Bachman allegedly threatens, “You won’t see the bullet coming.”
“We actually have a tier too, in like points for how much you are worth once we kill you,” Bachman’s voicemail left for Johnson allegedly stated. “You’re going to die, and I’m happy about it.”
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