A Coupeville man is being held in jail on $350,000 bail after he threatened the life of a judge, according to court documents.
Troy Christensen appeared in Island County Superior Court via Zoom on Jan. 24. Judge Carolyn Cliff found probable cause existed to believe Christensen may have committed the crime of felony harassment — threat to kill.
In addition, Cliff ruled that Christensen’s mental condition is such that he should be interviewed by a mental health professional for possible commitment to a mental treatment facility before being released on a bail bond, should he post one.
According to a report by a deputy with the Island County Sheriff’s Office, a call taker from the 988 Crisis Line on Jan. 22 asked for a welfare check on 64-year-old Christensen after he called the line and stated “he had a plan in place to kill a judge on Jan. 28,” the deputy wrote.
Christensen was scheduled to have a hearing before Judge Eric Ohme, an Island County District Court commissioner, on that date.
At a prior district court hearing on Jan. 21, Christensen became upset, saying he wasn’t going to take any guff — he used a different word — from the court and that he “ran the island,” the report states. He said he was going to put the judge in his place at the next hearing, which was set for Jan. 28, the report states.
On Jan. 23, a therapist reported that Christensen emailed her three times, saying he was fantasizing about killing the judge and that he was thinking about “violent deadly child rape,” the deputy wrote.
Later that day, the therapist called police again. She said Christensen called her and threatened to kill her as well as kill and rape other people, the report states.
Christensen called the National Suicide Hotline twice more that day to report suicidal and homicidal ideations.
“He also mentioned he had court on Monday and ‘if the judge is alive Monday, he’s a lucky man,’” the deputy wrote.
Deputies obtained an arrest warrant and arrested Christensen.
In court on Monday, a judge from Skagit County Superior Court heard the case since both Cliff and Judge Christon Skinner recused themselves.
