Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
(12-29) 13:29 PST SACRAMENTO -- A Butte County man has been indicted on federal charges for allegedly making a series of threatening phone calls to hotels, a rabbi, a Jewish history museum and a church, saying he planned to kill people or destroy buildings.
Scott Roberts Hudson, 52, of Paradise has a previous federal conviction from 1999 for threatening to kill Randy Johnson, a pitcher at the time for the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team, and to cut off his genitals, court records show. Hudson served 34 months in prison or in a halfway house in that case.
The new charges, handed down Thursday by a federal grand jury in Sacramento, accuse Hudson of calling people between August and November. The indictment includes seven counts of threats to use fire or explosives and two counts of making threatening communications.
Hudson was arrested on Dec. 20. Earlier this year, his mother told investigators that her son suffered from mental illness and "does not take his medication," FBI Special Agent Kristy Martinez wrote in an affidavit.
In August, the defendant allegedly called St. Mary's University in Rochester, Minn., five times. In one call that was taped, Hudson said a religious group in Germany was going to "burn to the ground" St. Mary's buildings "in a shocking penetration of God's peace," the affidavit said.
In August and September, the defendant threatened to kill Greg Laurie, the pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside who is known for his public evangelical events called Harvest Crusades, authorities said. In several phone calls, Hudson said he believed Laurie should be "6 feet under" and that "I'm the one that can put him there," the affidavit said.
On Sept. 3, when former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel was visiting Philadelphia, the city's National Museum of Jewish History received a phone call in which Hudson threatened to shoot a museum official in the head and set fire to the building, authorities said.
On Oct. 13, Hudson threatened to set fire to the Ben David Messianic Jewish Congregation in Orange (Orange County), the indictment said.
On Oct. 29, Hudson called a Hilton hotel in New York City and said, "Sunday I will bomb the Hilton New York and the new World Trade Center will also come down. All Jews will also burn," the affidavit said. He allegedly called the hotel two more times over the next week, making similar threats, authorities said.
On Nov. 3, Hudson, claiming to be calling from Hamburg, Germany, called the Westin Hotel in New York and said a bomb would go off on Nov. 11, the affidavit said.
E-mail Henry K. Lee at snipped-for-privacy@sfchronicle.com.
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