Winger Sentenced After Collins Threat

Am I wrong, or is this the first we've heard of this?

BDN:

An Illinois man was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court to five months in prison followed by five months of community confinement for threatening to shoot U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and assault a staffer in her Augusta office during a phone call on Feb. 10, 2009.

John P. O'Neill, 47, of Arlington Heights, Ill., also was sentenced to three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to one count of making threatening interstate communications.

[...]

The unemployed ironworker, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, called Collins' Augusta office 17 times between Feb. 9 and Feb. 12, 2009, according to court documents. At first, O'Neill urged the senator to vote against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the $787 billion stimulus package.

When he learned that Collins supported the bill, O'Neill made the phone call that led to the criminal charge...

O'Neill told the staffer, who is identified in court documents by the initials C.M., that Collins had sold out her country and was a disgrace to the Republican Party. He then said that he was going to "put a bullet in her head" and that he was going to "come to Maine and kick [C.M.'s] teeth in," according to court documents.

The threats were reported immediately to the Threat Assessment Section of the U.S. Capitol Police, which notified the FBI, according to court documents. Agents in Illinois visited O'Neill at his home in a Chicago suburb the same day he made the threats.

[...]

After O'Neill serves five months in a federal prison, he will be confined to a community treatment center or group home where he can continue treatment for his mental health and substance abuse problems, Woodcock said.