Oregon Penitentiary Inmate Sentenced in Federal Court for Series of Crimes Against Law Enforcement Personnel

PORTLAND, OR—An inmate of the Oregon State Penitentiary, Andrew Laud Barnett, 32, today received an additional 80-month federal sentence for a series of crimes against law enforcement personnel occurring from 2008 through 2012. U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernandez ordered that 63 months be served consecutively to the prison term Barnett is currently serving in Oregon state custody.

In January 2008, while serving earlier state sentences for assaulting sheriffs’ deputies in Washington and Marion Counties, Barnett mailed a threatening letter to Washington County Sheriff Rob Gordon and three of his deputies. The letter was in retaliation for Barnett’s earlier assault prosecution and contained explicit threats of sexual assault, injury, and death against the officers.

In August 2011, while awaiting federal court proceedings in the 2008 case, Barnett assaulted a deputy sheriff at the Multnomah County Detention Center. Barnett threw a container of human urine and feces in the face of the deputy.

In April 2012, while awaiting trial in both the 2008 and 2011 cases, Barnett mailed a threatening letter addressed to his federal prosecutor, Assistant United States Attorney Stephen F. Peifer. The envelope contained a white powder that Barnett represented was anthrax. A receptionist at the U.S. Attorney’s Office opened the letter in the course of her duties and inhaled the powder. Hazardous materials personnel and paramedics came to the U.S. Courthouse to investigate and care for the victim. The substance was later determined to be a penicillin-based antibiotic that had been ground into a powder.

In addition to the 2007 assaults against the deputies, Barnett has prior felony convictions for third-degree robbery, first-degree burglary, and vehicle theft in 2000, delivery of a controlled substance in 2004, and assault of a corrections officer in 2004.

Barnett currently has a projected release date of May 2015 after serving his sentence on conviction of the state cases. Therefore, the 63-month portion of his new federal sentences will not commence until his state sentences end.

The federal cases were investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.