Man accused of threatening Rep Smith pleads guilty
Former Vanderbilt football player Dereal Finklin admitted late last week to making online death threats against U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, the congressman’s office.
Smith said after reading The Trentonian’s indepth profile on Finklin, once a highly touted football player out of Lakewood High School, and getting a letter from the ex-college football player’s mother, he felt more sympathy than anger over the death threats.
The congressman talked to Finklin’s mother for about 15 to 20 minutes over the phone and was touched by “a mother’s concern” for her son.
“People struggle with [different issues], whether it be drugs or PTSD from military service. There always needs to be the balancing of what else is going on,” Smith said.
Finklin admitted to fourth-degree cyber bullying after prosecutors said he posted menacing messages about the congressman, including one in late July of a picture of Smith next to the words “Dead Man Walking.”
Authorities zeroed in on another post, made under the name Israel Bay, that preceded the “dead man walking” post and allegedly said, “Anyone outside of my blood from Monmouth and Ocean County on my Facebook account, you are dead.”
A judge at a detention hearing earlier this year ordered Finklin to remain locked up while his case played out.
Facing third- and fourth-degree counts of cyberbullying which could have sent him to the slammer for up to five years, Finklin reached a plea pact with prosecutors Friday under which he admitted to the less serious charge.
His guilty plea paved the way for his immediate release after serving 91 days behind bars.
Prosecutors agreed not to seek additional jail time, but Finklin is expected to be put on probation for an unspecified amount of time, undergo a mental health evaluation and to not have further contact with Smith, the congressman’s office said.
Finklin’s attorney Regina Ruocco previously argued her client wasn’t a danger to the congressman and said his posts about Smith, next to the caption “dead man walking #America #NewJersey,” was protected “political commentary that didn’t “rise to the level of threatening to kill anyone.
She chastised those close to Finklin for jumping to conclusions and pointed to other meanings of the term “dead man walking,” including a poem by Thomas Hardy that was about someone who was “spiritually dead.”
Ruocco also mentioned it was the name of a movie adapted from a book written by Sister Helen Prejean, a Louisianan nun who has been a staunch advocate for abolishing the death penalty.
“That commonly refers to situations where a jailer would be walking a condemned prisoner down the tier of the jail to the execution chamber,” Ruocco said. “And that jailer would say to the other prisoners, ‘dead man walking,’ so they know it was the person’s final walk.”
She urged the judge her client was using the phrase in a political context to describe the “lame duck” congressman, who is up for re-election against Democratic challenger Josh Welle in next month’s race.
Smith, a Republican who lives in Hamilton and represents parts of Mercer, Monmouth and Ocean counties, said he was encouraged the episode was behind him, ahead of the election, though he stressed he didn’t influence when the case resolved.
“I had no say in the timeline,” he said. “I had confidence they [prosecutors] would do the right thing.”
The congressman had previously told The Trentonian he took Finklin’s threats seriously after being subjected to constant harassment that included having his tires slashed eight times over the last year or so.
Smith said wasn’t looking for a pound of flesh from Finklin and only wanted the “rule of law.”
The congressman’s office said he relayed that sentiment to prosecutors when he asked them to “consider a path forward
that is most likely to ensure that Mr. Finklin gets the mental health care he appears to critically need.”
Finklin’s loved ones told The Trentonian in previous interviews they noticed a change in the excollege football player prior to his arrest and were concerned about his mental stability.
One of Finklin’s friends was alarmed many of his online posts, some attacking school officials in at least two municipalities where Finklin had connections.
Finklin was upset a Bridgewater soccer coach had done his daughter wrong, his friend said, and she saw posts of him ranting about it online.
Authorities became aware of the posts through one of Finklin’s high school friends who was friends with him on Facebook.
She contacted authorities after seeing some of Finklin’s posts. And they later came to the attention of a retired state police detective and Monmouth prosecutors said.