A Tremonton man accused of trying to extort money from Utah Jazz owner Larry H. Miller has been ordered held in jail pending another court appearance Friday.
Richard L. Christiansen, 43, was arrested Wednesday after picking up a phony payoff package dropped off at the Sky Park Airport by an FBI agent pretending to be Larry Miller.During a hearing Wednesday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Ronald Boyce, prosecutors said Christiansen had mailed two letters to Miller auto dealerships in Midvale and Salt Lake City earlier this month demanding $150,000.
If Miller didn't deliver the cash personally to a specified site, the letters said, a bomb would be detonated at the Delta Center.
Christiansen has been charged with two counts of mailing extortionist threats, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and fines totaling $500,000. Boyce said he will decide at 10 a.m. Friday whether Christiansen should remain in jail until his trial.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brooke Wells said prosecutors will present their case against Christiansen to a federal grand jury next week.
The criminal complaint alleges that Christiansen mailed two photo copies of the threatening letter to Miller on June 12, the day before the Utah Jazz were playing the Chicago Bulls in the decisive Game 6 of the NBA Finals in Chicago.
Miller notified Salt Lake police of the threats the following Monday. Though Miller and the Delta Center have been the targets of threats before, Miller told investigators he took this one more seriously because of the tension surrounding the Finals.
"I feel bad for the guy," Miller said. "He must have been really desperate."
At the hearing Wednesday, prosecutors presented no evidence to indicate that Christiansen took any steps to make or plant a bomb at the Delta Center.
According to the complaint, agents of the FBI major crime task force delivered a package as instructed to a field at 2425 S. Redwood Road in Woods Cross, with one agent posing as Larry Miller. Christiansen drove by the drop-off spot in a maroon Cadillac and then walked past it twice before picking up the package.
Agents picked him up a short distance from the site, and he later admitted that he had mailed the threatening letters, the complaint said.
During his court appearance, Christiansen initially declined the services of an attorney, asking Boyce, "Would it change anything?" But he changed his mind when Boyce explained the complexities of sentencing guidelines.
Boyce said he would provide Christiansen with a court-appointed lawyer, noting that Christiansen was in debt and unable to pay for one himself.