Louisville, KY – A federal grand jury in Louisville returned an indictment last week charging a local woman with mailing communications containing threats to injure others in November and December of 2020.
According to court documents and statements made in court yesterday, Suzanne Craft, 54, sent multiple threating communications via the United States Postal Service to a family that lived in her neighborhood. Many of these communications contained threats of violence and racial slurs.
Craft is charged with five counts of interstate communication with threat to kidnap or injure in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 876(c). The defendant made her initial court appearance on August 19, 2022 before a U.S. Magistrate Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, and, after a hearing held yesterday, Craft was ordered detained pending trial. If convicted, Craft faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison. There is no parole in the federal system. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
U.S. Attorney Michael A. Bennett of the Western District of Kentucky, FBI Special Agent in Charge Jodi Cohen of the Louisville Field Office, and U. S. Postal Inspector in Charge Lesley Allison of the United States Postal Inspection Service made the announcement.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Postal Inspection Service are investigating the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher Tieke and Stephanie Zimdahl of the Western District of Kentucky and Trial Attorney Mary J. Hahn of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division are prosecuting the case.
An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.