CINCINNATI – Rodney D. Cydrus, 48, formerly of Chillicothe, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to mailing threatening communications. Cydrus was an inmate at Lebanon Correctional Institution at the time of this offense.
Benjamin C. Glassman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Angela L. Byers, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cincinnati Division, and Yvonne DiCristoforo, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Secret Service, announced the plea entered into today before U.S. District Judge Michael R. Barrett.
According to court documents, on five separate occasions in January 2017, Cydrus mailed letters threatening to injure numerous government officials, including the President of the United States, federal judges, the FBI and the Federal Public Defender’s Office. Four of the letters were addressed to the FBI and one letter was addressed to the Federal Public Defender’s Office.
As part of the threat, Cydrus included a powdered substance (namely his own medication) in the letter to the Federal Public Defender’s Office on January 17, 2017.
Cydrus was indicted by a federal grand jury in February 2017.
Mailing threatening communications is a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
U.S. Attorney Glassman commended the investigation of this case by the FBI and U.S. Secret Service, as well as Assistant United States Attorney Timothy S. Mangan, who is prosecuting the case.
--DOJ Southern District of Ohio