Man Sentenced For Anti-Semitic Death Threats In Stratford: Feds

STRATFORD, CT — A New York man has been sentenced to three years in federal prison on hate crime charges in connection with making anti-Semitic death threats to a Stratford resident, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut.

Christopher Rascoll, 49, of Blauvelt, was also sentenced Wednesday to three years of supervised release following the prison term, officials announced. Rascoll was arrested in June 2020 following an investigation by the FBI with assistance from the Stratford Police Department.

Editor's note: This story contains anti-Semitic language attributed to Rascoll by law enforcement.

Authorities said that in November 2019, Rascoll began to threaten a woman, who is Jewish, through numerous text messages, voicemails and Facebook posts. In several text messages and voicemails, which continued until June 2020, Rascoll threatened to kill or seriously injure the victim, according to authorities.

He also threatened to blow up the victim’s house and car, authorities said.

“Some of Rascoll’s threatening text messages contained anti-Semitic references to the Holocaust,” officials wrote in the news release. “On December 23, 2019, the first day of Hannukah, Rascoll sent the victim a message that included the words ‘Suns about to go down. It would be a shame if your house were used to light the menorah. Or turned in a gas chamber.’ On April 8, 2020, the first day of Passover, Rascoll wrote ‘I’m going to kill you. You better be gone because if you’re in [the victim’s housing community] Easter weekend I’m going to stick you in an oven. Or I’m going to shoot you . . . . I should send you to a concentration camp.’

“On June 26, 2020, only a few hours before he was located and arrested by the FBI, Rascoll left the victim a voicemail message stating, ‘The police are not going to help you. The courts are not going to help you. . . . I will kill you.’”

The FBI’s investigation also identified several other individuals who had been threatened and harassed by Rascoll, officials said.

“For seven months, this defendant’s hate-fueled threats made the victim in fear for her life, and she continues to suffer lingering effects of his vicious behavior,” Acting U.S. Attorney for Connecticut Leonard C. Boyle said. “In addition to protecting the victim, this sentence sends an appropriate message that these crimes cannot be tolerated and will result in a lengthy prison term.”

David Sundberg, Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division of the FBI, said: “The courts have spoken very clearly: Hate crimes will not be tolerated and the consequences will be significant. We at the FBI, alongside our law enforcement partners, will continue to address threats based on race, religion, nationality or gender in order to end crimes of hate in our communities.”

The judge ordered Rascoll to serve the first three months of his supervised release in a residential reentry center.

Rascoll has been detained since his arrest on June 26, 2020. He pleaded guilty in April to one count of interference with the right to fair housing, a hate crime, and one count of sending threatening communications.