Boca Raton Woman Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison for Threatening to Shoot FBI Agents

MIAMI – A federal district judge in West Palm Beach has sentenced 61-year-old Suzanne Ellen Kaye to 18 months in prison for threatening to shoot FBI agents in videos that she posted on social media. A jury found Kaye guilty in June 2022.

On January 16, 2021, FBI’s National Threats Operation Center received an online tip with information that Kaye may have been at The United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. ten days earlier (January 6) or knew of others who were there. The tip was referred to the FBI office in West Palm Beach for further investigation.

On January 28, 2021, two West Palm Beach FBI agents contacted Kaye by telephone and asked to interview her. Kaye agreed and requested that it take place at her house. On January 31, 2021, before any interview, Kaye posted three videos on social media. In each publicly available video, Kaye informed her audience that the FBI wanted to question her about her visit to Washington, D.C. on January 6. On video, Kaye announced that she would “shoot their [expletive] a--” if FBI agents showed up at her house.

FBI learned about Kaye’s social media postings on February 8, 2021, when they received a second online tip with one of the videos. Agents arrested Kaye at her home on February 17, 2021.     

U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida and Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey B. Veltri of the FBI, Miami Field Office, announced the sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Robin L. Rosenberg.

FBI Miami, West Palm Beach Resident Agency investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark Dispoto and Shannon O’Shea Darsch prosecuted it.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov under case number 21-cr-80039.

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