MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO LYING ABOUT ANTI-JEWISH THREATS

BOSTON – A Townsend man pled guilty in federal court yesterday to lying to an FBI agent who was investigating threatening emails sent to a Jewish teenager.

CANN admitted in court that he lied to an FBI agent in March 2005, when he told the agent that he had not sent a threatening electronic message to a Jewish teenager on April 21, 2004. At the plea hearing, CANN acknowledged that he had, in fact, sent the e-mail message, in which he called the teenager a variety of anti-Semitic epithets and stated his intention to harm the teen. CANN also admitted that he lied to the agent in denying he struck the teenager within days of sending the threat. yesterday to lying to an FBI agent who was investigating threatening emails sent to a Jewish teenager.

CANN faces a maximum of five years imprisonment. His sentencing is scheduled for May 21, 2008 before United States District Judge Patti B. Saris.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation - New England Field Division, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney S. Theodore Merritt of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Deputy Chief Bobbi Bernstein of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.