The man who allegedly threatened The Dallas Express has been arrested on suspicion of making a terroristic threat and criminal mischief and faces potential charges in a separate violent incident, according to Dallas County Court records.
The Highland Park Police Department arrested 38-year-old Chris Reader for the terroristic threat incident on March 8, according to court documents.
His court date has not been scheduled; the Dallas County district attorney’s office told The Dallas Express. The charge is listed as a misdemeanor.
Reader also faces a hearing for misdemeanor criminal mischief at 9 a.m. May 3 in Dallas County Criminal District Court for another alleged crime. He was cited on January 2 in that case, Dallas County Court search information revealed. The case reportedly involves an alleged violent road rage incident.
In November of last year, The Dallas Express received numerous violent threats through email against its employees as well as the entire floor of the building the paper is located on.
“You are going to die,” he wrote, adding, “Your children and all of those you hold dear will die.”
In another email sent, it asks “How badly do you want someone to hunt and slaughter you and your family?”
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Reader is the son of a local roofing contractor Doug Reader.
Reader’s father previously had won bids for several government buildings in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, including the Dallas Convention Center and the Collin County Justice Center.
Reader works for his father as in-house counsel to R&B Roofing, according to documents retrieved from the Federal Elections Commission.
He has a brother named Jonathan, who is also a manager for the company.
The family of the alleged suspect, Reader, are longtime donors to key local Democrat politicians, and the violent threats made against The Dallas Express suggest the threats could be politically motivated.
“F**k you and your garbage rag,” an email suggested, with another message calling the organization a “right-trash ‘newspaper.’”
Also, he added that the paper needs to write new material.
“Get some new material: your tropes tripe and twisting of facts into fictions is such tired trolling.”
Reader, his father, and his brother have collectively donated nearly $23,000 to the campaign of U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, according to finance reports reviewed by The Dallas Express.
Reader’s mother, Marsha Gordon, also contributed more than $13,000.
With that donation, the Reader family’s contribution to Allred totaled over $36,000.
The Dallas Express reached out to the Highland Park Police Department for additional information, but a public information officer was not immediately available for comment.
Doug Reader, Christopher Reader’s father, declined to comment and denied any knowledge of his son’s arrest when reached by The Dallas Express.
We have some very mentally sick people in our society.
The mental sickness is being normalized.
I thought it was very generous of him to call this a “…newspaper”; that should count for something in his plea agreement.
Got to agree,TDE is garbage plain and simple.
Awww, it’s the defenders of the permanent criminal underclass and dregs of society here to cry about mean ol yt.
It seems as if the boiling point is near. Stuff like this is happening more and more these days and it’s sad to see. This character needs mental treatment. Threats are not taken lightly by anyone anymore, you could threaten most all you want but once you bring family into the scenario, that moves the situation to another level. I truly hope the DA does their job and the judge as well. Treatment is apparent and a must but this guy needs to learn that you can not go around making deadly threats and driving is a privilege.
Sad that an odinary citizen would be arrested for saying something ex-President Trump says everyday. Trump threatens and bullies his opposition and their familes without remorse. Maybe the Highland Park PD should go to the source of this discourse in Mar A Lago.
Sounds like a lovely liberal family.
Play their game , print their addresses , and everything you can legally disclose . I guarantee they can dish it out but they can’t take it
Wasn’t there in article in DE not to long ago in which a civil rights activist was complaining of “racist” threats from a blogger? Most of the commenters here didn’t seem to have a problem with HIM. Death threats and other threats of violence should be condemned regardless of who makes them. PLEASE people. STOP THE HATE.
“the charge is listed as a misdemeanor”
unless you are a pro american in which case its up to nancy pelosi
I went to the same school as this guy – entitled and pampered Dallas liberal working for daddy. He needs to find contentment within himself and find a healthy way to navigate this internal vitriol rather than waste time targeting a newspaper for publishing their OPINION. You can disagree, but threats are never okay, and there needs to be accountability. Maybe next time, if you don’t like it, don’t read it and just move on. Very sad!