A longtime felon was sentenced to 10 years in prison Wednesday for unleashing a string of threats last year to kill "all the judges, clerks and deputies" among other public employees in Hennepin County.
Peter R. Berry, 61, of Minneapolis was sentenced in U.S. District Court in St. Paul after pleading guilty to interstate transmission of threats for telephone calls he made to various county offices over several days in June 2021.
Berry also admitted to possessing firearms as a felon — two pistols and a rifle — in the months before the threats were made.
Upon his release from prison, Berry must serve three years of court-ordered supervision.
Berry's criminal history spans several decades and includes convictions in the metro area for burglary, drug possession, possession of burglary tools, making terroristic threats, violating restraining orders and making harassing phone calls.
While the Hennepin County Government Center is accessible at the street and skyway levels without screening, deputies and security personnel are posted there during business hours and at other times. Access to the courthouse and its offices requires passing through staffed metal detectors.
According to the indictment against Berry and other federal and state court documents:
An arrest warrant for Berry was issued June 24, 2021, after he failed to appear at a court hearing in connection with an arrest the previous summer when he was living in an RV on a Minneapolis street and in possession of a handgun, ammunition, other people's credit cards and dozens of oxycodone pills.
Afterward, Berry called a county Community Corrections Department employee inquiring about his court appearance and threatened to "shoot up the place." "What are you going to do, come down to Florida and get me?" he said.
The next day, he called a county Service Center employee who told him of the active arrest warrant. Berry replied that he was going to "come down and kill everybody, all the judges, clerks and deputies."
On June 29, Berry left a voice message for a county public defender and expressed dissatisfaction with the representation he had received in his criminal case. "You are going to be disbarred," he said. "I want accountability and transparency or people are going to die. Don't worry … I know where you live."
Berry was arrested the next day in Indiana, where he had with him a handgun, a semiautomatic rifle and ammunition for both weapons.
