Racist threats to Philly Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw resulted in felony conviction

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A Massachusetts man who sent racist and threatening emails to Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw last year was convicted Wednesday by a federal jury that rejected his defense that he was drunk from a power outage, did had no recollection of having written them and could not be held criminally responsible.

Peter Fratus, 39, of West Dennis, had previously taken the witness stand in his own defense, sitting with slumped shoulders and recounting the moment FBI agents showed up at his home to question him about the June messages 2020, which included racial slurs and vague threats to hang or murder black people.

I had no recollection of emailing anyone in Philadelphia or the Philadelphia Police, said Fratus, who is white. I have no connection with Philadelphia. It didn’t make sense to me.

Nonetheless, prosecutors produced evidence showing that Fratus searched the internet for Outlaws’ name several times within minutes before sending the emails. A few months earlier, she had been named the first black woman to lead the 6,000-member police force and her efforts to lead the department through the spring protests against the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis had raised her profile. in national news.

At the time, Fratus was also under investigation by the Massachusetts State Police for leaving threatening voicemails for State Attorney General Maura Healey in which he threatened to cut her off. throat.

The threats he made in 2018 against U.S. Representative Maxine Waters (D., Calif.), Including the lynching of black members of Congress, also caught the attention of the FBI. And on the same day he contacted Outlaw, evidence shows Fratus also left anti-Semitic voicemails for an Orthodox Jewish charity in Ocean County, New Jersey, threatening to kill children at an affiliated day camp. to the association.

Testifying on Tuesday, Fratus appeared mortified when confronted with the tapes and said he was completely disgusted with the content of emails sent to Outlaw. He said he suffered from severe alcoholism at the time, drinking a liter and a half of vodka a day and passing out regularly for hours.

I have no recollection of sending it, he said of the outlaw emails. I cannot tell you what my intention was.

The courts have recognized intoxication as a defense in certain very limited circumstances involving charges where proof of intent is required for a conviction. As a rule, an accused must show, as Fratus argued during his trial, that he was so drunk that he could not have consciously intended to commit the crime in question.

But Deputy U.S. Attorneys Robert J. Livermore and Sarah M. Wolfe countered that that same night, Fratus was texting and calling other people and had sent emails suggesting he was consistent with the time, even though he couldn’t remember what he had done the next day. .

FBI agents said when they first confronted Fratus with the messages last year, he denied sending them, then said that even if he did, he was simply exercising his rights. under the First Amendment and had no intention of following through on his threats.

Judges who have already reviewed Fratus’ conduct are not so sure. In addition to his habit of speaking while intoxicated, he has a history of violent intoxicated behavior, including a series of attacks on black women, homeless people, and police dating back to 2011.

He was on probation after being convicted of assaulting police officers in Massachusetts at the time of his emails to Outlaw. to send threatening interstate communications.

U.S. District Judge Gerald J. Pappert, who presided over Fratus’s trial in Philadelphia, kept most of the evidence regarding these past violent incidents out of more recent proceedings, instead ordering prosecutors to focus on his threats against Outlaw. and similar threatening communications Fratus had made in the past.

Fratus now faces up to five years in prison.

This is a developing story.

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