Man once accused of gay threats gets probation

Federal case was dropped, only state misdemeanor charges kept him in custody

Craig Jungwirth, the Orlando-area man once accused of threatening to “exterminate” gay people in Wilton Manors was due to be released Monday after pleading no contest to misdemeanor charges in Broward County.

Jungwirth, 50, was sentenced to six months of probation for failing to pay all of a food and drink bill at the Courtyard Cafe in Wilton Manors in 2014 and an additional six months of probation for damaging the windows at the Rumors Bar & Grill last May.

Both charges were misdemeanors carrying maximum possible sentences of under a year in jail. Broward County Judge Ginger Lerner-Wren said Jungwirth likely would have been sentenced to time served even if he had been tried and convicted.

Jungwirth has been in custody since September, when federal prosecutors accused him of using one of dozens of Facebook accounts to threaten a mass shooting reminiscent of the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando that left 49 people dead last June.

By December, prosecutors were admitting that the federal case was weak, based largely on a screen shot of the alleged threat that appeared to have been posted by Jungwirth. Investigators were unable to track down the actual threat, although Jungwirth was tied to 59 different Facebook accounts, prosecutors said.

With the federal case dropped, the state misdemeanor charges were all that kept Jungwirth in custody.

Late last week, police in Wilton Manors distributed fliers depicting Jungwirth and warning that the federal investigation against him is not over. Jungwirth’s lawyer, Ron Baum, criticized the warning as a “Salem witch trial,” using suspicion to convict Jungwirth in the public eye after failing in court.

Jungwirth will serve out his probation in Orlando, Lerner-Wren said. He is also prohibited from contacting the owners of the two Wilton Manors restaurants during his probation. The prohibition includes contacting the restaurants via social media, the judge said.

Jungwirth said he understood the prohibition and vowed to comply with it.

Jungwirth