In Sherman, Texas, a federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging Jeremy David Hanson, a 44-year-old Rossmoor, California resident, with federal violations in the Eastern District of Texas.
U.S. Attorney Brit Featherston announced on May 12 that Hanson was indicted on charges for interstate transmission of threatening communications.
According to the indictment, Hanson is accused of sending a threatening email to the president of the University of North Texas (UNT) on March 3 in response to a student protest the day before.
The student protests occurred on the UNT campus when politician Jeff Younger was invited to speak on campus. Younger has been the subject of many news stories due to the ongoing disagreement between him and his ex-wife on whether their child should be permitted to transition genders. The Dallas Morning News reported that the early March event escalated to police intervention.
Younger is now running for state representative in House District 63 and faces Former Flower Mound Councilman Ben Bumgarner in the runoff.
“Jeremy Hanson is accused of sending numerous death threats and hate-filled messages related to the LGBTQ community, which the FBI acted swiftly to disrupt,” said FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge Matthew J. DeSarno. “These abhorrent threats were intended to incite fear and intimidation and have no place in our society. The FBI will continue to protect the American people from threats of violence and find justice for victims.”
Hanson faces up to five years if convicted.
This is not the first time UNT has made headlines in the past couple of months.
Earlier this month, The Dallas Express reported Kelly Neidert, a local activist, claimed she has spent most of her undergraduate experience at the school dealing with threats from alleged Antifa members.
Her off-campus apartment door was recently spray-painted with an obscene message, which she alleges was done by members of Antifa. As reported in a different Dallas Express story, someone on social media claimed they spit in Neidert’s coffee.
On the other side of litigation involving UNT, in mid-March of this year, a federal judge ruled that a former math professor’s lawsuit against the university could proceed after the school asked for it to be dismissed.
The Dallas Express reported that Nathaniel Hiers, a former adjunct professor at UNT, alleged the university violated his First Amendment rights by firing him after he mocked the concept of “microaggressions.”
The lawsuit’s central issue stems from an incident in November 2019, when someone left a stack of flyers explaining the concept of microaggressions in the UNT faculty lounge.
According to the flyers, microaggressions are “verbal and nonverbal behaviors” that “communicate negative, hostile, and derogatory messages to people rooted in their marginalized group membership.”
A list of alleged microaggressions was also included in the handouts. “America is a melting pot,” “I believe the most qualified person should get the job,” and “America is the land of opportunity” were among the listed phrases.
