Oswego County Man Pleads Guilty to Making Threatening Communications
| U.S. Attorney’s Office June 29, 2011 |
Richard S. Hartunian, United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York, announced today that a former Oswego County man has pled guilty to making interstate threatening communications.
BILLY COUNTERMAN, age 49, pled guilty in federal court in Syracuse to transmitting an interstate threat to injure another in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 875(c). COUNTERMAN admitted that on March 3, 2011 he placed two telephone calls from Colorado where he had been living to his ex-wife in Oswego. In each of these calls, COUNTERMAN threatened to seriously injure the victim. COUNTERMAN was arrested in Colorado on March 17 and has been held in custody since. COUNTERMAN had been convicted of similar charges in federal court in Syracuse in 2003. He was sentenced to 27 months’ imprisonment as a result of the earlier conviction.
United States District Court Judge Glenn T. Suddaby scheduled sentencing for October 14, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. in Syracuse. COUNTERMAN faces a maximum term of imprisonment of five years, to be followed by three years of supervised release and a potential fine of $250,000. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward R. Broton.