U.S. marshals: Homewood man threatened to murder Pittsburgh federal judges

A Homewood man who has tangled previously with U.S. marshals over threats to several judges who dismissed his lawsuits has now been charged with threatening to kill them.

Henry James Holmes was indicted Tuesday following a complaint brought earlier this month by marshals accusing him of mailing a threatening letter on April 7 in which he said the judges are “expendable to this family.”

The grand jury charged him with two counts of mailing threats and retaliating against a federal officer.

The judges are Mark Hornak, the chief judge in Pittsburgh, and two magistrate judges, Maureen Kelly and Cynthia Reed Eddy.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Tom Faherty said in a federal affidavit that Holmes’ letter, sent with a return address in Wilkinsburg to the federal courthouse, said he wanted “criminal charges” filed against the three judges.

The magistrate judges had dismissed his lawsuits, and Hornak had agreed with the dismissals.

Faherty said the marshals had dealt with Holmes, who has several addresses, in 2019 and 2020 over other threats and had gone out to interview him. He told them he didn’t mean any harm. But he kept doing it, according to the complaint.

In December 2019, Holmes sent a letter to the court in which he wrote, “I’m coming after you, Judges! Count on it.” Marshals went and talked to him at his Pitt Street apartment. When confronted with what he wrote, he said he meant no harm and apologized, Faherty said.

But in September 2020, he sent another letter in which he wrote, “We have unfinished business! You the Judges who dismissed my law suits … Good thing my armed military retires relatives was not here as they stated. They don’t ask questions based on unlawful trespassing by Anyone.”

Marshals went out again, this time to Holmes’ address in McKeesport, and talked to him. Again he said he meant no violence.

In his most recent letter this month, Holmes referenced his civil cases brought in 2017 and 2019.

The magistrate judges issued recommendations to dismiss both, and Hornak agreed.

In the letter, Holmes wrote, “My family members who retired from the military will enforce this to the death.”

Holmes wrote about being upset that the marshals had come to his house in 2019 “without a warrant” to “harass” him and “provoke” him into breaking the law so they could arrest or kill him. He made similar comments about the 2020 visit by marshals, saying they should be arrested.

Holmes also included a Pittsburgh police incident report in which a detective was requested to investigate Holmes for failing to register as a sex offender. Holmes wrote on the report that his family members were “coming out of military retirement” to deal with the issue.

Holmes also included a photo of flyers identifying him as a sex offender that were posted in his neighborhood. Faherty said that under the photo he wrote that “Judges put this entire family at risk of drive by shootings — you will be dealt with.”

Holmes was arraigned Wednesday and ordered detained by a magistrate judge in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, where the case will proceed to avoid conflict of interest since Pittsburgh judges are the victims.