COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Columbus man pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to threatening to bring a bomb to a local women's reproductive health facility.
Carlos Manuel Rodriguez Brime, 25, also admitted to threatening to kill a patient whom he believed was seeking an abortion at the clinic.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Ohio, Brime made two separate calls to the clinic on April 11, 2021.
In the first, he made a death threat relating to the patient. During the second call, he made a bomb threat directly to the clinic saying, “my organization will be bringing a bomb to your facility. I suggest you close your doors.”
Brime was indicted by a grand jury and arrested in Sept. 2021.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said Brime admitted to violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which makes it a federal crime to threaten the use of force to intimidate anyone receiving or providing reproductive health services and to transmitting a threat in interstate commerce.
Threatening freedom of access to clinic entrances is punishable by up to one year in prison and transmitting threats in interstate commerce carries a potential maximum sentence of five years.
A sentencing date for Brime has not been set.
Kenneth L. Parker, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Kristen Clarke, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice; J. William Rivers, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cincinnati Division; and Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant announced the plea entered into today before U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus, Jr. Assistant United States Attorneys Emily Czerniejewski and S. Courter Shimeall and Civil Rights Division Trial Attorney Sanjay Patel are representing the United States in this case.
