By Maxine Bernstein
oregonlive.com
PENDLETON, Ore. — A 32-year-old man who threatened to kill FBI agents at the bureau’s Pendleton office in eastern Oregon was sentenced Wednesday to time served — about a year and five months in custody.
Federal investigators identified Timothy Justin Griffith through caller ID when he placed a call to the FBI’s Pendleton office at 3:39 p.m. on Nov. 12, 2024, saying, “All officers and agents in your resident office will be killed within the next 30 minutes. Have a good day.”
The caller then hung up.
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The office was evacuated and closed. FBI agents then obtained GPS location data for Griffith’s phone, which showed his phone active in the La Grande area. Federal agents alerted La Grande police, who were familiar with Griffith, but they couldn’t locate him that day, according to court records.
Two days later, La Grande police arrested Griffith on unrelated charges and police seized his cell phone.
A federal grand jury indicted him on Feb. 11, 2025, charging him with threatening a federal official and making interstate communications with a threat to injure. A warrant was issued for his arrest and he was taken into custody in Trinity County, Calif.
Last month, Griffith pleaded guilty in federal court to threatening a federal official.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole M. Hermann supported the time-served sentence.
“While certainly concerning, there was no overt action or steps taken,” she told a judge. “It was a singular phone call.”
Griffith has prior convictions for felony assault and a history of mental-health challenges, according to Hermann.
Griffith’s lawyer Ryan Costello said his client already served nearly twice the low end of the sentencing guidelines for the crime, which called for a nine-month sentence. Griffith had no intent or capability to carry out the threat he made, Costello said.
U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut said she found the sentence to be appropriate. She told Griffith that the outcome doesn’t suggest his crime was not a serious one.
“Even if you may not be intending to carry out the threats, certainly you create fear in others,” the judge said.
Griffith is expected to be released to a residential re-entry center in Medford and undergo a mental-health evaluation, his lawyer said. He’ll be on three years of federal supervised release.
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