Man arrested for alleged threatening of police via phone
WAILUKU — A Wailea man was arrested Saturday after he allegedly made phone calls threatening to kill or harm Maui Police Department officers or employees, according to police.
Thomas Richter, 65, was charged with three counts of first-degree terroristic threatening.
The phone calls to police dispatch and to the police chief’s office were made Friday, police said.
Richter was arrested Saturday afternoon in Lahaina, according to police records.
During his initial appearance Monday afternoon in Lahaina District Court, convening in Wailuku, Deputy Public Defender David Pullman asked for Richter to be examined by three psychiatrists or psychologists to determine his mental fitness to proceed in the case.
Judge Kirstin Hamman suspended court proceedings while the examinations are being done.
She granted the prosecution’s request to increase bail for Richter from $17,000 to $60,000.
Hamman said she was concerned that the allegations are similar to ones in another pending case against Richter.
“The court is concerned about the safety of the community,” she said.
In his earlier case, Richter was arrested for allegedly threatening to bomb the Kihei Police Station and driving a car toward a police officer after being found in a secure area of the station on July 21. Richter reportedly had recently purchased items commonly used to construct an improvised explosive device, police said.
Richter was charged with two counts of first-degree terroristic threatening, attempted first-degree assault on a law enforcement officer, first-degree resisting an order to stop a motor vehicle and second-degree terroristic threatening.
He was released after posting $22,000 bail in that case and is also undergoing mental health examinations while those proceedings are suspended, court records show.
Richter was ordered to return to court Jan. 7 in both cases.
If he posts bail in his more recent case, Richter was ordered to report to be supervised and to take his medications as prescribed.