SALT LAKE CITY — A federal grand jury has indicted a West Valley man over threatening phone calls he made to Salt Lake County officials.
According to a federal charging document released by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Ryan Gregory Bracken, 44, faces five counts of stalking and one count of interstate communication of threats after he made a number of threatening phone calls to various Salt Lake County Offices.
The string of calls was first reported April 1, when Bracken left a voicemail at the Salt Lake County Recorder's Office, accusing Salt Lake County Recorder Rashelle Hobbs and an office employee of treason, repeatedly stating that "the penalty for treason is death."
The following day, Bracken called the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office and attempted to speak with Sheriff Rosie Rivera regarding what he alleged was a "fraudulent Sheriff's sale" scheduled for April 8 on his property. Over the course of a 20 minute phone call, he alleged that he had been ignored by multiple people including "Sheriff Rosie Herrera" and went on to state he would "open fire" on whoever showed up to his property to evict him.
When a detective from the Sheriff's Office took over the call and attempted to talk him down, Bracken continued to shout about the pending foreclosure of his property, and continued to threaten the employees for another 13 minutes.
Later that day, Bracken called the office five more times, demanding to speak with Sheriff Rivera, going on to state that she "will swing from a rope,"accusing her of treason, and repeating his threats to shoot anyone who showed up to serve eviction notices on his property.
Bracken was later taken into custody April 4. Over the course of the investigation, it was discovered that Bracken had made a total of 32 calls to Salt Lake County government offices in the month of April alone.
Bracken is schedule to appear in court August 27.
