IDOC Inmate Charged With Making Violent Threats

ROCK ISLAND, IL—A federal grand jury today charged an inmate at the Pontiac Correctional Center with sending threatening letters to judges and state prosecutors in three Illinois counties. The indictment charges Lewis L. Clark, 20, with sending letters containing murder threats to judges and prosecutors in Henry county, Adams county and Vermillion county. Clark, also known as “Chico,” is currently serving a four-year sentence in the Illinois Department of Corrections for a 2006 conviction in Henry county, Illinois, for the aggravated battery of a correctional institution employee, according to the indictment.

The four-count indictment alleges that letters from Clark were received as follows:

• December 31, 2008, at the Henry County Courthouse at Cambridge, Illinois, a letter to an Illinois Circuit Judge of the 14th Judicial Circuit which contained a threat to murder the Judge and the Circuit Clerk because the Judge had denied Clark’s petition for post-conviction relief;
• January 21, 2009, at the Henry County Courthouse, a letter to an Illinois Circuit Judge of the 14th Judicial Circuit which contained a threat to murder the Judge, the Circuit Clerk, and others, because the judge had denied Clark’s petition for post-conviction relief and because police had been notified concerning a previous letter Clark had sent to the Judge;
• January 22, 2009, at the Adams County Courthouse in Quincy, Illinois, a letter containing a threat to murder an Illinois Circuit Judge of the 8th Judicial Circuit and the Adams County State’s Attorney, and;
• January 22, 2009, at the Vermillion County Courthouse in Danville, Illinois, a letter containing a threat to murder two Assistant State’s Attorneys.

The charges are the result of a coordinated investigation by the Internal Affairs Unit of the Illinois Department of Corrections at the Pontiac Correctional Center; Illinois State Police; Federal Bureau of Investigation; Henry County State’s Attorney’s Office; Livingston County State’s Attorney’s Office; Henry County Sheriff’s Department; Adams County Sheriff’s Department; and the Vermillion County Sheriff’s Department.

If convicted, each count of mailing threatening communications carries a statutory penalty of up to five years in federal prison. The case is being prosecuted by First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey B. Lang.

Members of the public are reminded that an indictment is merely an accusation; the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.