Man With Ties to Domestic Terrorism Pleads Guilty to Threatening South Jersey Judge

A Wisconsin man with ties to a domestic terrorist group pleaded guilty to threatening and filing false charges against a municipal court judge and 27 other police and municipal employees in Winslow and Voorhees, Camden County Prosecutor Mary Eva Colalillo announced on Wednesday.

Michael Rinderele, 29, of Waukesha, Wisconsin, pleaded guilty to third degree threats and other improper influence in official and political matters and four counts of fourth degree retaliation against a public official for past official conduct.

He accepted a five year term of incarceration in New Jersey state prison as part of the plea agreement.

He also will pay more than $600 in fines and agreed to have no contact with the more than two dozen public officials who were victimized in this case.

He admitted he sent a Voorhees Township Municipal Court Judge a threatening email due to traffic offenses filed against his common-law wife, Joann Ellis. He threatened the judge with “financial ruin” if the charges weren’t dropped, and the judge ignored the request.

He then filed fraudulent commercial liens against the judge and 27 other public officials in Voorhees, including court staff and police personnel.

Rinderle identifies with the Sovereign Citizen movement, whose members advocate recognizing only common law and argue federal, state and municipal codes have no authority over them.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation lists the Sovereign Citizen Movement as an extremist domestic terrorist threat.

The kind of harassment directed at the Voorhees judge and other officials is typical for the organization. Sovereign Citizens attempt to use bureaucratic processes to engage in “paper terrorism.”

Sovereign Citizens commonly use the type of fraudulent commercial liens filed by Rinderle as a form of harassment.

These liens were filed without supporting evidence of a debt and can damage the credit rating of the victims. It is a criminal act to file a false lien against another person.

Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 3.

Rinderele also pleaded guilty to eluding in Pennsylvania earlier this summer and received probation in Dolphin County, Pennsylvania.