COLUMBUS, Ohio – A federal grand jury has charged a Columbus man with threatening a reproductive health services facility.
Carlos Manuel Rodriguez Brime, 25, was arrested yesterday. He is scheduled for arraignment on Sept. 23. Brime allegedly made two separate telephone threats on April 11 to a local reproductive health care clinic in which he made a death threat and a bomb threat.
Specifically, Brime is charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which makes it a federal crime to threaten the use of force to intimidate anyone receiving or providing reproductive health services. Brime is also charged with making threatening statements through interstate communications and with making a bomb threat.
If convicted of the offenses, Brime faces up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
Vipal J. Patel, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Kristen Clarke, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice; J. William Rivers, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cincinnati Division; and Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant announced the charges. Assistant United States Attorney Emily Czerniejewski and Civil Rights Division Trial Attorney Sanjay Patel are representing the United States in this case.
An indictment is merely an allegation, and defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.
