A New Jersey man has pleaded guilty to attempting to blow up a Catholic Church during a high-profile annual mass and now faces the prospect of decades behind bars. 

In a statement last week, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Louis Geri of Vineland, New Jersey, had pleaded guilty to a count of Hobbs Act extortion by wrongful use of force, violence, or fear and a count of possession of an unregistered firearm in connection with his attempt to cause an explosion at the annual Red Mass in honor of law enforcement officials in Washington, D.C. Geri’s guilty plea comes five months after he was arrested before he could carry out his plan. 

Geri had assembled more than 100 homemade explosive devices and sought to detonate them on the steps of St. Matthew’s Cathedral. He was discovered by Metropolitan Police Department officials in a tent outside the church in the early morning of Oct. 5, when the mass was scheduled to take place. He refused to follow their orders to move and threatened to throw one of his explosive devices into the street, warning them that “several of your people are going to die from one of these.”

Geri also made a list of written demands that he wanted met in order for him to call off his plan to detonate the explosive devices, including “hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to himself and others, extended accommodations at the Mayflower Hotel, an expatriation flight to Japan, and requests that the Supreme Court remove Arizona from the United States and declare it a ‘foreign enemy.’” Additional demands made by Geri were directed at leaders of the Catholic and Jewish faiths. 

After establishing a barricade around the tent, law enforcement apprehended Geri when he emerged from the tent. Following his capture, Geri informed law enforcement that he wanted to use the devices to target St. Matthew’s Cathedral, the White House, the Washington Monument, the U.S. Capitol and the U.S. Supreme Court. 

“Threatening to detonate devices on the steps of a Catholic church — or any religious institution — is a violation not only of our way of life, but of the First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion,” said U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeannine Pirro. “Terrorizing people of faith will result in serious consequences and significant prison time.”

Engaging in extortion in violation of the Hobbs Act comes with a maximum penalty of a fine and/or a 20-year prison sentence, while possession of a destructive device could lead to a prison sentence ranging from five to 10 years. Geri is expected to learn his fate at a sentencing hearing scheduled to take place on July 27. 

Geri’s case was tried in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. In addition to the Metropolitan Police Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as well as the Washington Field Office of the FBI assisted in the investigation. 

News Source : https://www.christianpost.com/news/man-pleads-guilty-to-threatening-to-blow-up-dc-catholic-cathedral.html