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Los Angeles, California - Federal authorities Wednesday morning arrested a South Los Angeles man who allegedly made a series of online threats to kill law enforcement personnel and others at the Los Angeles Superior Court’s Inglewood Courthouse, a nearby school and a private business.

John Patrice Hale, 42, who used the online moniker “Frost K Blizzard,” allegedly made the threats using techniques designed to make his internet communications anonymous, which included using Tor and proxy servers.

Hale is expected to be arraigned on a 10-count indictment this afternoon in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles.

The indictment alleges that Hale sent the online threats over several days in May 2017 to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department’s Court Services Division website. Some of the threats invoked ISIS, but authorities have not uncovered any evidence linking Hale to international terrorism. The threats specifically alleged in the indictment are:

In addition to these threats, Hale allegedly sent a threat to a private business through its website on May 23 that read: “All praises to Allah. Today, we will detonate an explosive at your La Brea and Arbor Vitae location if our needs aren’t met by your company. ISIS.”

The indictment further alleges that on May 25 Hale submitted bogus information to the FBI’s “Tips and Public Leads” webpage, despite a warning posted on that webpage that submitting a false tip could result in a fine and/or imprisonment. In the submission, Hale allegedly made the false claim that he knew a man who “would supply ISIS with explosives even planting them for them” and who had received instructions from ISIS “to send inglewood sheriff department bomb threats via email.”

The indictment returned by a federal grand jury on November 7 charges Hale with five counts of making false and misleading statements concerning terrorism, four counts of making threats to injure in interstate commerce and one count of making false statements to federal law enforcement.

An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.

If Hale were to be convicted of the charges in the indictment, he would face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for each of the 10 counts.

The investigation into Hale is being conducted by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and was led by special agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

          This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney George E. Pence of the Terrorism and Export Crimes Section.