Man Accused Of Making More Threats
An obsessed former Washington State University student, just sentenced to federal prison for threatening two WSU professors, continues writing menacing letters, authorities say.
Donald W. Petersen, 48, allegedly has written three letters since he was sentenced on Dec. 26 to two years in federal prison for mailing threats to WSU sociology professors Armand Mauss and Viktor Gecas.
The latest letters were mailed from the Spokane County Jail, where Petersen awaits transportation to a federal prison. Court records show at least one letter was sent to Mauss.
A new FBI investigation is under way, and Peterson could face additional charges, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Johnson said Friday.
The initial federal charges were filed last July after Peterson threatened the lives of the two professors while serving time in the Washington State Penitentiary.
He served five years in prison for pulling a handgun on one of the professors in 1990.
In one letter sent from the state penitentiary, Petersen urged one professor’s wife to stop having sex with her husband because “you will be a widow soon.”
In others, Petersen threatened to kill the professors.
In the letters, he expresses the belief that the professors blocked his path to a doctoral degree.
The federal charges were filed just as Petersen was to be released from the penitentiary.
The professors told authorities they fear the ex-student.
“I made a conscious decision to let you live, you scum!” Petersen told Mauss in one letter.
He admitted sending similar threatening letters to Gecas.
On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Whaley, who sentenced Petersen, refused his attorney’s request to reduce Petersen’s two-year prison term.
That term will be followed by three years of supervision. If Petersen writes letters to the professors during that term of supervision, he will have to spend three more years in prison.
, DataTimes