California woman convicted of 'hateful' anti-Semitic phone calls

A Riverside woman who bombarded the former executive director of Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue with threatening phone calls and voicemails — the first coming just months after the deadliest anti-Semitic attack on U.S. soil — has was sentenced to nearly three years in prison, according to court documents. .

Melanie Harris, 59, hurled anti-Semitic slurs, vowed violence, including beheadings, and used “vile and inflammatory language,” according to a Miami-based FBI agent.

Harris, who pleaded guilty in March, was sentenced by a Miami judge to 32 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for intentionally transmitting a threatening communication in interstate commerce. The Federal Bureau of Prisons will determine where Harris will serve his sentence.

A call and email to the attorney representing Harris were not returned.

Markenzy Lapointe, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, said Harris' “anti-Semitic threats terrorized a Jewish family.”

“His hate-filled phone calls and voicemails were abhorrent,” Lapointe said in a statement. “No one should live in fear of threats, harassment and hate-fueled violence. »

The calls began in February 2019, according to court documents – just months after Robert Bowers fatally shot 11 worshipers at a Pittsburgh synagogue on October 27, 2018. Bowers, who has since been convicted and sentenced to death, espoused white supremacist views and spoke out about his hatred of Jews online before the shooting.

Harris concealed his identity using the *67 feature, which blocks caller ID, and left voicemails laden with “anti-Semitic and harassing remarks,” according to court documents.

She first made three calls in the space of three minutes, first to Tree of Life, then twice to a person identified in court documents as Victim No. 1, the former executive director of Tree of Life who was then living in the Pittsburgh area.

Between February 2019 and March 2022, Harris called victim No. 1 an additional 53 times, according to court records. An analysis presented to the court showed that Harris attempted 190 appeals between October 2022 and February 2023, including 129 in November. However, many of those calls went unanswered or immediately hung up, according to court documents.

All calls to Victim No. 1 were made from Harris' home in Riverside, authorities said.

Harris left 15 voicemails for victim #1 on October 3, 2022, including four threatening and anti-Semitic messages. In one, according to court documents, Harris twice threatened to behead Victim No. 1's stepson, whom she referred to using an anti-Semitic slur, according to court documents.

That same day, Harris made three additional calls to Victim No. 1, all advocating similar violence against him and his family, according to court documents.

On Nov. 22, Harris threatened in another voicemail to stab victim No. 1, according to court documents. There was an additional call and threat on December 6.

In voicemails left with Tree of Life, she gloated about the shooting of Jewish grandmothers, using a slur, according to court documents. Harris also hurled anti-Semitic slurs at the adult child and stepson of Victim No. 1 and his wife, according to court documents.

Neither the victims nor Harris knew each other, according to court documents and prosecutors. Harris was not thought to have any ties to Tree of Life.

Victim #1 and his wife eventually left Pennsylvania and moved to Broward County, Florida. Victim No. 1, however, did not change his cell number, wanting to maintain ties to the Pittsburgh community, according to court documents.

Authorities say Harris also referenced the death of Anne Frank at the hands of the Nazis and the sending of Jews to Auschwitz. In a broadcast call to the court, Harris repeatedly shouted: “Sieg Heil, [Jew] killers,” using a slur, before hanging up, according to court documents.

She was arrested on March 4, 2023.

“The nature of his threats of violence toward the victims and their faith was clearly intended to evoke a climate of fear and intimidation,” Jeffrey B. Veltri, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Miami field office, said in a statement. . “Such conduct cannot be tolerated.”