I guess he must have been unrepentant because he was DF'd. Child molestors stay in good standing. I guess that is because only children are hurt and the whole congregation could have suffered (especially the elders) from anthrax.
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-threat2oct17,0,6130576.story
Man gets six months for anthrax threat
By David Gurliacci
Special Correspondent
October 17, 2002
BRIDGEPORT -- A 71-year-old Norwalk man who threatened to contaminate courthouses and schools with anthrax was sentenced yesterday to six months of incarceration, but a judge recommended that he serve it in a federal halfway house.
Exactly a year after police received the telephone threat to contaminate the federal courthouse in Bridgeport and other buildings with anthrax, Judge Stefan Underhill sat before Fred C. Forcellina in that courthouse to sentence the perpetrator.
Forcellina had been arrested about 30 seconds after he hung up the telephone receiver, his lawyer said.
"I see before me a very good man who's lived a very good life, who did one of the stupidest and most shocking things that I've ever seen as a judge," Underhill said just before handing down his sentence. "What do you do in a case like this? It's not easy."
Forcellina indicated in his anonymous Oct. 16, 2001, telephone call that he was a Muslim, possibly from Afghanistan, and his threats were made in reaction to what the United States was doing to "my people."
He said anthrax had been put in the Stamford and Norwalk state courthouses, as well, and that railroad stations would be next, possibly followed by school buildings.
It was just a month after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and anthrax letters had started appearing in the news. A state office building had been evacuated after one false anthrax threat. Weeks later, a Connecticut woman died from anthrax contamination.
The police officer who received the anonymous call asked Forcellina who his people were, but Forcellina hung up.
Forcellina is Italian-American, and he has been a Jehovah's Witness since he was a child, said his lawyer, federal public defender Terence Ward. Since his arrest, Forcellina has been formally shunned by the Jehovah's Witnesses, Ward said.
"It would be hard to imagine a person who feels more shame and remorse than Mr. Forcellina," Ward said.
Forcellina has spoken before 30,000 people at a religious rally in Shea Stadium, and for two years before his arrest, he delivered food to a homeless shelter, seven days a week, Ward said. For five years, the lawyer said, Forcellina regularly visited people at a nursing home.
Forcellina was also successful in business, running a sausage factory for 25 years which employed 22 people at one point. More recently he worked as a real estate agent in Norwalk.
But about a year before he committed the crime, Forcellina lost his entire $3 million fortune -- "representing, basically, all his life's work, all his life's savings," Ward said.
He kept much of the news from his wife, Ward said. But on Oct. 16, 2001, Forcellina was due to appear in federal court in Bridgeport for a bankruptcy hearing. He would be losing the title to his home in Norwalk. He now lives with his wife in her sister's home in New Canaan, Ward said.
Forcellina's son, Todd, told the judge that Forcellina is a loving husband and father who is "always trying to take care of everybody else," and "he never really asked for help from anyone."
"There's nothing you could ask him to do that he would not do," said Carol Binny, a neighbor of Forcellina's for 25 years.
Forcellina was incarcerated for two months after his arrest, and that time is expected to be deducted from his six-month sentence.
After his release, he will be on probation for two years, during which time he must perform 100 hours of community service a year and receive psychiatric counseling as judged appropriate by federal probation officials. Forcellina can start his sentence the Monday after Thanksgiving, the judge said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Appleton said after the court hearing that he was not surprised by the judge's decision. Appleton had argued that Forcellina should be given a longer sentence than the six months indicated by federal sentencing guidelines.
"Deterrence here is the central issue," Appleton said during the court hearing. Appleton said he was concerned about what potential hoaxers might think. "A message needs to be sent that this activity cannot be condoned."
Forcellina said he was deeply sorry and, "I hate myself for what I said." He hopes anyone who even heard of his crime "can forgive me and . . . please don't hate me."
At the end of the hearing, after the sentence had been delivered, Underhill said he wanted to give Forcellina "a couple thoughts." He paused for a bit.
"You essentially asked for forgiveness," Underhill said. The judge said he wasn't in "a position to forgive" Forcellina. "I want to say, you're going to have to find that somewhere else."
Copyright 2002, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.
Forcellina, Frederick