ALLEGED PIPE-BOMB MAILER ORDERED HELD WITHOUT BAIL
NEW YORK — The man accused of sending pipe bombs to prominent critics of President Donald Trump was ordered held without bail after his first court appearance in New York on Tuesday.
Cesar Sayoc, who was transferred from federal custody in Florida, hugged his lawyer after a hearing in which Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane Kim called him “a serious risk of danger to the public and a flight risk.”
Sayoc has been accused of sending improvised explosive devices to numerous Democrats, Trump critics and media outlets in a scare that heightened tensions before the midterm elections. None of the devices exploded, and no one was injured in the pipe bomb scare.
He was arrested outside a South Florida auto parts store. He was living in a van covered with stickers of Trump and showing images of some of the president’s opponents with red crosshairs over their faces.
Sayoc faces nearly 50 years in prison if convicted on five federal charges that were filed in New York because some of the devices were recovered there.
Assistant Federal Defender Sarah Baumgartel declined to comment after the hearing, in which Sayoc presented himself as polite and soft-spoken and responded “Yes, sir” to the judge’s questions. He wore navy blue jail scrubs and a gray ponytail.
His lawyers decided not to seek his release on bail after prosecutors released a letter outlining more evidence against him, including DNA linking him to 10 of the explosive devices and fingerprints on two of them.
While Sayoc’s attorneys have not commented on his mental health, his mother wrote a letter to ABC News saying he has suffered from mental illness for years.
“While I have not lived with my son for 35 years or even heard from him in over four years, I cannot express how deeply hurt, sad, shocked and confused I am to hear that my son may have caused so many people to be put in fear for their safety,” Madeline Sayoc wrote in the letter, according to ABC News. “This is not how I raised him or my children.”