Man pleads guilty to threatening sheriff, FBI agent

A Columbus man pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to threatening an Oklahoma sheriff online and an FBI agent in person.

Joseph Michael Bragg, 40, of the Northeast Side, admitted to single felony counts of transmitting a threat in interstate commerce and influencing a federal official by threat. District Judge Michael H. Watson will determine a final sentence in the case in the coming months.

According to court documents, Bragg posted alarming messages in June 2018 and July 2018 under the “contact us” section of the Oologah, Oklahoma, website, calling the town “the anus of America,” among other disparaging descriptors, and threatening violence on members of law enforcement, politicians and “anyone associated with Freemasonry.”

“I am coming to cut off the heads of anyone with a badge and your families. … I will cut off your and your families’ heads with great zeal. … There’s stupid then there’s Oklahoma stupid,” Bragg wrote in one of nine posts online that was included in court documents:

Investigators traced the fraudulent email address involved to a North Cassady Avenue address, where an FBI agent later in July 2018 made contact with Bragg.

Bragg came to the door, shouted profanities at the agent and told the agent “you have no authority here” before going back inside, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Columbus. Bragg came back to the door threatening to shoot and decapitate the agent, who drew his weapon in fear for his safety. Authorities came back with a search warrant and later arrested Bragg, who has been in custody since.

Under a plea agreement, Bragg would be sentenced to time served — as long as he has been in jail for “at least 12 months” in advance of his final sentencing — plus three additional years of probation with mental health treatment.