Calif. Woman Charged in Schiavo Threat

Calif. Woman Charged in Schiavo Threat

NewsMax.com Wires
Thursday, April 7, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO -- A California woman has been charged with threatening to kill Michael Schiavo, the man whose decision to remove his brain-damaged wife's feeding tube enraged religious conservatives.

The federal charge against Dera Marie Jones stems from a posting on an America Online message board: "If she dies I will kill Michael Schiavo and the judge. This for real!"

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Jones told FBI agents she was "just kidding" and soon began receiving threats herself, FBI Agent Christopher Sadlowski wrote in an affidavit filed Monday in federal court in San Francisco.

Jones, 32, is charged with transmitting in interstate commerce a communication containing a threat to injure a person.

Schiavo's wife, Terri, died at a Florida hospice March 31, almost two weeks after her feeding tube was removed. She had received food and water artificially since 1990, when she suffered brain damage that court-appointed doctors determined had placed her in a persistent vegetative state.

Michael Schiavo had been in a prolonged legal battle with his wife's parents, who wanted their 41-year-old daughter kept alive.

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