PHILADELPHIA – A district court in Pennsylvania has dismissed a case with prejudice after the plaintiff allegedly threatened witnesses.
Judge John Rufe wrote the court’s decision that granted the defendant’s motion to dismiss as a sanction against the plaintiff, Angel Muniz, who the court believes wrote a threatening letter.
The letter arrived at the courthouse on the same day that a pre-trial conference for the case had been planned, according to the court decision. Muniz was in transit from the state correctional institution where he was incarcerated but he did not make it to the courthouse that day.
“Mail screeners for the courthouse had received and isolated a letter from an inmate at SCI Albion, dated October 10 ,2017...the letter was smeared with an unidentified brown substance and enclosed in an envelope containing a white powder,” Judge Rufe wrote.
The writer of the letter made direct threats to “witnesses Nash, Boardman, Harris, Sisiliano, and Disalvatore Marano.
“I have sent an airborne infectious disease which I have been infected with...I wish I have infected you with this hazardous infectious Disease for LIfe as theres [sic] no cure...I intend to harm you due to your testimony.”
The court continued the trial indefinitely because of the security threat.
“There is strong evidence that plaintiff wrote and sent the letter dated October 10, 2017,” the court decision stated.
“The handwriting throughout the letter is consistent with plaintiff’s handwritten compliant in this case,” Judge Rufe wrote.
“Moreover, plaintiff has been convicted of sending threatening correspondence to a federal judge in the past,” he noted.
“He admitted during his deposition in this case that his prior threats were motivated by a desire to be transferred out of state custody into federal custody.”
Judge Rufe wrote that due to the actions by Muniz, “an appropriate sanction is dismissal of all claims with prejudice.
“To allow plaintiff to pursue his claims after his deliberate attempts to abuse the judicial system would be anathema to the fair administration of justice.”