Opinion ID: 167382
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Mr. Teague's Defense

Text: 20 At trial Mr. Teague admitted sending the e-mails. But he gave an explanation for his actions. He stated that he had sent the e-mail mentioning the name of Mr. Locatelli's daughter to ring his bell, so to speak, as hard as I could, to get him to file a report with the FBI. Id. at 121. He said that his ex-wife had instigated an FBI investigation, and he had tried to induce Mr. Locatelli to contact the FBI because he was very angry with the FBI for investigating me for the past three years, id., and wanted to get their attention. But, he said, he had not actually intended to threaten Mr. Locatelli or his family. 21 Referring to his e-mail of February 19, 2003, he explained that Colleen was a confidential informant and by mentioning her name he meant to alert the FBI that he was willing to out her. Id. at 124. Likewise, his e-mail suggesting that he might swing by Mr. Locatelli's house was intended to further annoy Locatelli, to get him to file the FBI—to get him to go back and twist the FBI's tail again. I was trying to push his buttons as hard as I possibly could by not doing anything overtly illegal, but by staying in gray area, so to speak. Id. [I]t was my intent from the very beginning, he testified, to press Mr. Locatelli's buttons as hard as possible, so he would go off and press the FBI's buttons as hard as possible. Id. He said that he continued to mention money because if you were attempting to collect on a debt, then, legally, what you are doing could not possibly be construed as harassment. Id. at 125. Mr. Teague further testified that he never intended to go to Las Cruces, he had not so much as held a gun in his life, and he had assumed that the FBI would inform Mr. Locatelli of that fact. He meant the e-mail suggestion that Mr. Locatelli see a psychologist to refer to Mr. Locatelli's wife, a psychologist. 22 As for his final e-mail, Mr. Teague testified that it was meant in an almost humorous way to get Mr. Locatelli to forward the e-mail to the FBI. Id. at 127. The FBI had already contacted him the day before about his earlier e-mails and he thought [he would] throw another piece of wood onto the fire, so to speak. Id. at 129. When asked why he would send another e-mail after having already been contacted by an FBI agent, who had left him a voice mail warning him that he really need[ed] to be careful, id. at 128, he said that the e-mail was a very flippant, kind of on-the-cuff [sic], spur-of-the-moment type of thing, id. at 130. He insisted that his statement You and your family are going to die was a literal, biological truth and was not meant to imply that he was going to kill them. He had not intended to convey a death threat, but acknowledged that it was an incredibly smartass thing to say to somebody, especially after all the other things I was doing, but, then again, I thought this was very safely well within the gray area. Id. When asked on cross-examination whether he felt he had succeeded in getting the attention of the FBI, he replied, I would say that I have succeeded far beyond my wildest hopes, yes. Id. at 139. 23 After the defense rested, the district court held an instruction conference. The prosecutor requested that the proposed elements-of-the-offense instruction be modified to emphasize that what must be proved is that a reasonable recipient of the communication would consider it a threat under the circumstances. Mr. Teague's counsel argued that the proposed instruction should remain as is. The district court agreed and rejected the prosecutor's proposed modification. The jury returned a guilty verdict.