Covington Twp. man charged with threatening Lackawanna County prosecutors
Jun. 23—A Covington Twp. man awaiting trial for allegedly threatening Gov. Tom Wolf earlier this year faces new charges after he threatened in an email to kill four Lackawanna County prosecutors, investigators said.
Christopher Daniel Ward, 40, 790 Bluebird Drive, was arraigned Wednesday by Magisterial District Judge Laura Turlip on multiple counts of retaliation against a prosecutor and other charges and ordered held in Lackawanna County Prison on $500,000 bail.
County detectives accused Ward of sending a threatening email June 16 to Deputy District Attorney Brian Gallagher and copying it to First Assistant District Attorney Judith Price and Assistant District Attorneys Michael McGrath and Lisa Swift.
With the subject line, "Your name was on the affidavit of probable cause, and I did say I had evidence," Ward's email accused Gallagher of stealing from him, the arrest affidavit said.
"Without unmentioned qualification, my goal is to kill you or anyone I might mistake for you (any who receive this letter or are listed as any addressee at any time before that opportunity is gone, as long as you are stealing from me or even if you have not admitted that you stole from me," according to a copy of the email, a portion of which was typed in all capital letters, attached to the affidavit.
Detectives learned Ward, who previously lived in Scranton, was associated with a property in Covington Twp. Detectives contacted township police, who took him into custody at the Bluebird Drive address without incident.
In addition to the retaliation counts, Ward was charged with four counts each of terroristic threats and harassment, along with a single count of criminal use of a communication facility.
Ward was arrested in February after state police say he sent an email to Wolf's office and the state victim advocate's office threatening to set fire to the governor's house and shoot whoever came out.
He had been free on $10,000 bail in that case, but Judge Michael J. Barrasse issued an order revoking his bail based on the new threats, detectives said.
Contact the writer: dsingleton@timesshamrock.com, 570-348-9132
