Man Who Threatened Police Department Gets Prison

A man who threatened to kill the entire Easton police department while in Northampton County Prison was sentenced to spend time in state prison for making that threat.

The Express-Times reports that Michael J. Ross, 32, will spend at least 18 months in a state prison for his threat against the department in August 2011, made while Ross was locked up for allegedly causing a car crash.

He had pleaded guilty in Northampton County Court to making terroristic threats. Ross had been charged with telling another inmate -- within earshot of a corrections officer -- that he had a plan to kill the entire police department.

And before leaving the courtroom, Ross had a lot to get off his chest, according to the Morning Call. 

"My problem is, I am so bitter with being locked up," Ross told Judge Edward Smith. "I'm like a propane tank with fire under it and the pressure leaks are stuck."

He compared himself to "the fat kid who gets beat up in the corner and his lunch money is in his hand," and said that while he won't be the guy "in the bell tower" if he gets out of prison, he'll also never go back.

"I said I was willing to die before I go back in the cage," Ross said. "Do I stand by that? Yes, I do."

Ross doesn't appear to be alone in the field of threats against local police.

Last month, a Warren County man allegedly threatened to shoot members of the Wilson police department after an incident at a local strip club.

In June 2012, Easton resident Patricia Lee Louden was accused of threatening several city police officers and their families when they came to arrest her in a DUI case. She pleaded guilty to the DUI charge, and all other charges against her were dropped.

And in November 2011, Bangor resident Leslie Smith was charged with threatening a group of officers who arrested him for trying to steal a shotgun from a police cruiser. He later pleaded guilty.