Man indicted for making threats to Justice Clarence Thomas

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Supreme Court's only black justice was the target of a racially motivated threat by an Ohio man who has been indicted in Cleveland, Justice Department officials announced Wednesday.

An eight-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury charges David Tuason of Pepper Pike, Ohio, with making multiple threats against Justice Clarence Thomas and with threatening to blow up the Supreme Court building.

Tuason had made the threats in e-mails and mailed letters to the Supreme Court, as well as to Thomas personally, according to a source close to the case.

Tuason "engaged in an elaborate scheme of sending racially motivated threatening communications ... intended to threaten and intimidate with bodily injury African-American males known to affiliate with white females," said U.S. Attorney Frank Filiuzzi Wednesday in Cleveland.

"The indictment alleges that an associate justice of the Supreme Court, athletes, and entertainers received threatening communications," Filiuzzi said.

Thomas's wife is white.

"The indictment also alleges that at times, children of mixed racial parents were also targeted," the prosecutor said.

The indictment says that "Tuason, at times, threatened to blow up the facility or building in which the targeted victim was located."

If Tuason is found guilty, he faces up to 10 years in prison for the count targeting Thomas and five years imprisonment for each of the other counts. [MORE]