September 4, 2014

Ohio Man Pleads Guilty to Threatening Officers

ABINGDON, VA—A Crooksville, Ohio man has admitted to threatening to injure officers of the Lee County, Virginia Sherriff’s Office during a hearing this week in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Abingdon.

Jeffrey Allen Hinkle, Jr., 31, of Crooksville, Ohio, pled guilty to a one-count Information charging him with transmitting in interstate commerce a threat to injure another person.

This week in the United States District Court, Hinkle admitted that on May 21, 2014, he called the Lee County, Virginia Sherriff’s Office and threated to “pull-up beside every cruiser . . .with [a] county deputy and shoot the officer in his face” if the sheriff’s office did not intervene in a civil dispute Hinkle’s relatives were having with a neighbor in Lee County, Virginia.

At the sentencing scheduled for December 4, 2014 in Big Stone Gap, Hinkle faces a maximum possible penalty of up to five years in prison and/or a fine of up to $250,000.

The investigation of the case was led by Federal Bureau of Investigation with the assistance of the Lee County, Virginia Sheriff’s Office. The United States Marshals Service led the execution of the arrest warrant in Ohio. Special Assistant United States Attorney Kevin Jayne is prosecuting the case for the United States.