LI Man Who Made Violent LGBTQ Threats To Be Sentenced: Feds

BAYPORT, NY — A retired Bayport music teacher and coach who pleaded guilty to threatening organizers of a gay pride parade is expected to be sentenced in federal court on Wednesday afternoon, according to the United States Eastern District of New York.

Robert Fehring, 74, pleaded guilty in February to mailing threatening communications, after threatening people for eight years because of their sexual orientation, prosecutors said.

According to an investigation, since 2013, Fehring authored and mailed at least 65 threatening letters to individuals, organizations, and businesses associated with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning (“LGBTQ+”) community, as well as government agencies, officials said.

Most of Fehring letters threatened violence, including the use of firearms and explosives, court documents said.

One event included LGBTQ+ Pride event on June 13, 2021 in Eisenhower Park in May 2021. According to court documents, Fehring threatened the CEO of an LGBT organization, saying he would be shot at the event.

Fehring showed up at the event, took photographs and videos, and sent them to the CEO to prove that he had been at the event but had been unable “to get a shot off.” He also sent the CEO a doctored Newsday newspaper page with offensive language, in an envelope, prosecutors said.

In another instance, Fehring sent a letter to a water ferry operator in Sayville threatening to shoot people traveling to a Pride event on Fire Island, New York, officials said.

The investigation revealed that the Fehring drove to the Sayville ferry terminal several times per year for several years and parked at the terminal with a custom-designed “Straight Pride” flag on his car, officials said.

Fehring also stole more than 20 Pride flags from the town of Sayville in June 2021, prosecutors said.

After a search of Fehring's home, officials found two loaded shotguns and nearly 400 rounds of ammunition for shotguns and other firearms.

Officers also said they found:

• Copies of several of the threatening letters described herein.
• Photographs and videos taken at the Eisenhower Park Pride Event, including the photographs mailed to the LGBT CEO.
• Two calendars with the dates of the Eisenhower Park Pride Event and the New York City Pride Parade circled.
• A copy of the doctored Newsday newspaper sent to the LGBT CEO.
• 20 Pride flags that were stolen from Sayville.
• A stamped envelope in his Fehring freezer containing the remains of a dead bird, which was addressed to an attorney who had worked on LGBTQ+ related cases, had published an article on an LGBTQ+ related court decision, and represented a plaintiff in civil litigation against the defendant.
• An envelope addressed to the defendant containing a DVD titled, “Underground Build
  Your Own Silencer System.”

Fehring was arrested by the FBI on December 6, 2021. He faces at 51 months imprisonment as a sentence.

In August 2021, a former Bayport student brought sexual abuse charges against Fehring, officials said. According to a case filed in the Child Victims Act, the woman faced"repeated sexual assault and abuse" by Fehring while she was a minor and a student at Bellport High School in the late 1970s.