Medford Man Released on Time-Served for Threatening to Burn Black Churches

A Medford man was released Monday after being held for 15 months in federal prison for sending letters threatening to burn black churches and NAACP buildings, the FBI said in a press release.

Jeffrey Smith, 46, of 122 Allston Street was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Joseph L. Tauro to 15 months in Federal prison, where he has been held April 15, 2010. The time served counted toward his sentence, so he was released to the custody of the Department of Mental Health and placed on three years probation, the FBI said.

to 11 counts of making a threat to destroy a building by use of fire, and two counts of mailing threatening communication.

Among the targets of the hateful, threatening letters were the Shiloh Baptist Church in West Medford, St. Paul Methodist Episcopal Church in Cambridge, and NAACP headquarters in Boston, Lawrence and Providence, R.I., according to a federal court indictment. The threats were sent between September and December of 2009, prosecutors said.

Smith's attorney, Thomas Hoopes, lobbied for Smith to be committed to the care of a state hospital because Smith has Asperger's Syndrome, and, as a result, can't react appropriately to stress, .

In the letter sent to NAACP headquarters in Roxbury on Sept. 17, 2009, Smith wrote:

"I do not like African American or minorities in charge as supervisors of my security department at Novartis, nor I like them as President of the United States. For that I am going to burn down your offices just let you know how I feel. What right does some black person has the right to be in charge of me.”

Smith sent a total of 31 letters to predominantly African-American churches, the NAACP and individuals, according to court filings. He could have been sentenced to up to 10 years in federal prison for 11 of the counts and 5 years for the other two.

Smith sent the letters in the name of a supervisor at Securitas Security Services after being overwhelmed with stress from criticism of his work as a night janitor, Hoopes wrote in his sentencing memo. 

"They believed that everything he did was too slow, even though the defendant contemplated eliminating his breaks to please them," Hoopes wrote. "...In the defendant's mind the anticipated job loss was an enormous threat and a potentially devastating loss to the stability of his life."