ST. GEORGE — An Arizona man accused of making a death threat against a Southern Utah judge is now in federal custody. Federal agents allege the defendant also threatened to execute a Scottsdale rabbi if charges filed against him in Utah’s 5th District Court were not dropped.
FBI field office in Phoenix, Ariz., photo taken in April, 2021 | Image courtesy of Sassan Davis, Google Maps, St. George News
Jeffrey Mindock, 50, of Tempe, Arizona was arrested last week on a federal complaint following a joint investigation spearheaded by the Federal Bureau of Investigations. The report alleged the Mindock threatened to execute a rabbi and many others, according to a complaint filed in federal court earlier this month.
Federal prosecutors allege that on the morning of Nov.3, Mindock sent an email to a rabbi of a synagogue in Scottsdale, Arizona asking the rabbi to “try to convince” a judge in Utah to “drop the charges against” him in a state case filed in 5th District Court in St. George.
The complaint went on to allege that Mindock continued by writing, “If you do not use your influence to right this wrong I will execute you and every other JEW [sic] I can find tonight at midnight of your Sabbath.”
The email continued, “If you wish to communicate with me further, I will only meet in person,” and listed an address for the sender in Tempe and was signed “Shalom, Viktor Sitkevicz,” as stated in federal documents.
The complaint also alleges that Mindock sent the threatening message after watching “the atrocities unfolding in Palestine.” The defendant emailed threats that authorities later verified came from the same Tempe address as the one listed for the defendant in motor vehicle records.
Federal prosecutors also stated this was not the first time that Mindock’s threatening behavior has caught the attention of authorities. In fact, the defendant appears to have been sending threatening emails since 2020.
In 2021, Mindock was arrested after reportedly threatening to execute several victims during an unrelated court appearance, and two years later the defendant sent an email on another unrelated case wherein he threatened to “hang a judge.”
The case involving the threat to the judge was filed in 5th District Court in St. George on Aug. 16. The defendant reportedly sent an email to both a judge and an attorney involved in a separate stalking injunction case filed against Mindock, according to a report by KSL News.
In the email, Mindock calls the judge a “race traitor” and said he “will die,” according to charging documents.
Stock image of 5th District Court in St. George, Utah | Photo by Cody Blowers, St. George News
“I want the court to schedule a hearing/execution date where I will execute Zionist sympathizer (judge) for his crimes against his own race. He has decided to aid the Israelites in persecuting me with this injunction. He will hang from the gallows for this crime,” the email stated.
Mindock was later charged with making threats against a judge, a third-degree felony; plus electronic communication harassment and making a threat of violence, class B misdemeanors.
On Nov. 3, the defendant was arrested on the current case involving the email sent to the rabbi. On Tuesday, Mindock was indicted on the charges, according to federal court records.
U.S. Attorney Gary Restaino said in the statement that while civil engagement and dialogue help to “bind us as a nation.”
“We will continue to exercise our prosecutorial discretion and deploy our resources to charge threats cases here in Arizona,” Restaino wrote.
Special Agent Chat Alvarado, with the FBI’s Phoenix Field Office, also commented on the case, stating that the FBI takes all threats of violence seriously.
“The FBI and our law enforcement partners must take people who make threats at their word and intervene, because protecting human life is our absolute priority,” he wrote.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted the investigation in this case, with assistance from the Tempe Police Department and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona is handling the prosecution. The case filed in 5th District Court in St. George is still pending.
A complaint is the charging document filed against a defendant method by which a person is charged with criminal activity and raises no inference of guilt. An individual is presumed innocent until evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
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