Beaufort man sentenced to 2 years in prison in Florida abortion clinic bomb threat
A Beaufort man was sentenced to two years in federal prison Wednesday after he was convicted of calling in a bomb threat to a Jacksonville, Fla., women’s clinic and lying to an FBI agent, according to officials.
Rodney Allen, 43, was sentenced to 24 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to one count of intimidating and interfering with the employees of an abortion clinic by making a bomb threat and one count of making false statements to an FBI agent, according to the Department of Justice.
Allen was sentenced in federal court in Jacksonville.
An FBI agent affidavit states Allen called the clinic several times on Aug. 29, 2019. In one of the calls, Allen said “someone is coming to the clinic to blow it up and hes (sic) just letting us know ahead of time,” court documents say.
The court documents did not name the clinic.
The FBI obtained call records from Verizon and confirmed Allen’s voice, the document said. When an agent confronted Allen in an interview, he denied having made the threats.
The affidavit states Allen had a romantic-turned-abusive relationship with a woman who had an appointment at the clinic and believed she was pregnant with their child.
“... Mr. Allen was moved by the possibility the child might be his,” according to a sentencing memorandum written by Allen’s public defender.
A call to that attorney, Maurice C. Grant of the Federal Public Defender’s Office, was not returned Thursday afternoon.
In the sentencing memorandum, Rev. Arthur Cummings, a former employee of Beaufort County and current pastor of a Burton church, urging leniency before sentencing was imposed.
“I have been involved in his life since he was in elementary school,” said Cummings. “I believe Rodney will continue to be a productive citizen and take responsibility for actions.”
This story was originally published September 24, 2020 at 3:14 PM.
