RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — A California man arrested on a charge that he made threatening phone calls to Washington state Congressman Jim McDermott has made his initial appearance in a Riverside federal court.
U.S. Magistrate Judge David Bristow set bond at $300,000 for Charles Turner Habermann on Wednesday and placed Habermann on home detention pending his next court date in Washington state on Jan. 25. Habermann could be released as early as Thursday.
Habermann of Palm Springs was taken into custody earlier Wednesday.
Investigators say he made two expletive-filled phone calls on Dec. 9 threatening to kill the liberal Seattle Democrat and his friends and family, and saying he’d hire someone to put McDermott “in the trash.”
The FBI interviewed him the next day in connection with the calls.
