Online threats land charges for felon
A convicted felon is accused of threatening to kill U.S. Rep. Chris Smith in a series of deranged posts on his Facebook page, the congressman told The Trentonian.
Smith, who has represented part of Mercer County in New Jersey’s Fourth Congressional District since 1981, confirmed in a telephone interview late Wednesday that authorities arrested and charged 43-year-old Dereal Finklin with criminal counts of making terroristic threats and cyber-bullying.
Finklin, who is originally from Piscataway, allegedly posted a picture of the congressman on Facebook next to a caption that read, “Dead man walking” and “an eye for a [expletive] eye,” Smith said.
He was booked on July 28, according to inmate records posted on the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office website.
The charging agency was listed as the Ocean Township Police Department for a contempt warrant. The records did not mention anything about the Finklin’s pending terroristic threats case.
Smith talked about facing an onslaught of derogatory and “hate-filled” online attacks from detractors that has ratcheted up the last couple of years.
But the longtime Republican congressman and human rights champion, who is running for re-election this November against Democratic challenger Josh Welle, said he wouldn’t be “intimidated” by Finklin.
“I don’t expect this will have a chilling effect on others. It’s been pervasive,” the congressman said, ticking off some of the harassment he has faced the last couple years that has forced him to ramp up security to protect him and his staffers.
In addition to constant banter from online trolls — some he said bordered on threatening — the congressman had surveillance cameras installed at his office and Hamilton home about a year and a half ago, after his tires were slashed seven times, he said.
“We’ve had to send a number of cease-and-desist letters,” Smith said, adding he had to fight for months to get a Twitter page taken down that sent out inflammatory messages purporting to be from him.
Smith couldn’t recall any past interactions with Finklin, who was interrogated by detectives and evaluated for any mental health issues, prior to being charged, Smith said.
His attorney asked to put off Finklin’s detention hearing until next week, the congressman said.
Smith said he became aware of the threats through a retired state police detective, who alerted authorities from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, which couldn’t be reached after hours for comment, about the alarming posts.
Smith said authorities did a “deep dive” of Finklin’s social media posts, which made them believe the threat on the congressman’s life was real.
The congressman said authorities linked other social media accounts to Finklin that he used under aliases.
It’s unclear at this point whether Finklin’s Facebook rants were motivated by disdain he may have harbored about the congressman’s past work and positions, including a very public pro-life stance that has attracted plenty of hate from online groups.
“I have a file that’s twice as big as the biggest phone book you’ve ever seen,” Smith said. “It’s because I’m pro-life. I believe in the sanctity of life. That’s my core conviction.”
Finklin has a rap sheet that includes prior theft convictions, but he doesn’t appear to have any convictions for violence.
He got arrested March 7, 2015, on theft charges in Mountainside Borough in Union County. He pleaded guilty in that case last year and was sentenced in January to three years of probation, court records show.
Finklin also stole property in Franklin Township in Somerset County on Nov. 26, 2016, according to court records. He got indicted in that case last year and ultimately pleaded guilty to third-degree theft by unlawful taking of movable property and credit card theft.
A judge sentenced him last December to a non-custodial probation term of 36 months, records show.
The congressman cited other recent examples of erratic online behavior that led to tragedy, including the shotgun execution of five staffers from the Annapolisbased Capital Gazette newspaper.
It came out that the suspect in that newsroom mass shooting, Jarrod Ramos, repeatedly made threats, some online, toward the newspaper staff over prior coverage of his criminal harassment case.
Asked what he wanted to see happen to Finklin if he’s convicted of authoring the threats against his life, the congressman said “only the rule of law.”