Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Ex-con stalked judges, cops say
Judges in Broward County are on edge. For months now, half a dozen of them have been on the receiving end of obscene phone calls and threatening letters from someone claiming to be their “biggest nightmare,” a detective told a judge Tuesday.
On Sunday, 10 additional Broward judges received some of the same.
The culprit, investigators say, is Todd Watson, 53, a convicted drug trafficker, landscaper and father of three who lives with his mother in Fort Lauderdale.
Watson was sentenced in Broward Circuit Court in 2011 to six years in state prison. Since his release in March, he has dedicated
“The judges, their wives, their children … they’re living in fear pretty much on a daily basis.” Joseph Kessling, Broward Sheriff ’s detective
himself to stalking and harassing the Broward judges involved and not involved with his case and their assistants, according to a 39-page complaint.
He has called a Jewish judge Hitler and an AfricanAmerican judge an Uncle Tom. In profanity-filled tirades, he has mocked the judges and called them scumbags, slime and pedophiles. He accused them of fabricating evidence, doctoring transcripts and colluding to wrongfully convict. He vowed to see them all die in prison, the complaint said.
Watson was arrested Tuesday and charged with 15 misdemeanors: five counts of stalking and 10 counts of making obscene phone calls.
“I pretty much have never seen somebody so dangerous, reckless and relentless in my entire life,” Broward Sheriff ’s Detective Joseph Kessling said at Watson’s first-appearance hearing. “He’s made it perfectly clear that he’s a nightmare, he’s free, he’s not going away and he is not going to stop.”
Watson’s bond was set at $100,000 Monday. He is in the Broward Main Jail.
The initial targets were judges Kenneth Gillespie, David Haimes, Jeffrey Levenson, Edward Merrigan, Sandra Perlman and Peter Weinstein, the complaint said.
To Merrigan, he wrote: “The two biggest problems you have is 1. I’m breathing 2. I’m free. Sincerely, Todd Watson.”
To Levenson, he wrote: “What’s it like to be living knowing full well you’re living on borrowed time. That you’re going to die in prison, Jeff? What, what’s that like?”
To Weinstein, he wrote: “I’m sick and tired of the last eight years of my life being negatively impacted by lowlife scumbags such as yourself.”
On April 18, Watson knocked on the locked door of Gillespie’s chambers. When Gillespie’s assistant answered, Watson tried to barge in and threw papers onto the floor. Gillespie pushed a panic button in his office and deputies responded.
On June 21, Watson visited Merrigan’s courtroom and refused to stand when the judge took the bench. A deputy escorted Watson away.
Among the second round of judges, all contacted Sunday, were Tim Bailey, John Bowman, Martin Fein, Ernest Kollra and Andrew Siegel.
“I have judges that are literally afraid to go out into the halls,” Kessling said in court. “The judges, their wives, their children … they’re living in fear pretty much on a daily basis.”
Noting that some of the judges were not involved in Watson’s drug trafficking case and three were not yet judges when it was resolved in 2011, prosecutor Eric Linder said: “Every judge in Broward County is a potential target.”
To bypass any appearance of conflict, a former Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge was brought in to hear Watson’s case.
“It’s a rather sad case,” said acting Senior Judge Lester Langer. “When Mr. Watson recently was released from prison after doing his time, he has spent most of his time, rather than with his children, his mother and his job, he has been spending time here in the courthouse, either on the phone or by mail going after the judiciary in some way or another. It’s unfortunate.”
Should Watson make bail, he will be restricted from visiting the courthouse unless he has a Broward sheriff’s deputy escort him in and out of the building.
He would have to wear a GPS ankle monitor and would only be allowed to go to and from work. He also was forbidden from contacting any judges in any manner.