An Ohio man has been hit with federal charges following allegations of sending racially charged threats to the first Black district attorney in New Mexico.
The FBI initiated an investigation after being contacted by 3rd Judicial District Attorney Gerald Byers’ office about a disturbing voicemail he received.
Upon review, authorities determined that Donald Fowler of Lodi, Ohio, left a two-minute voicemail for Byers filled with racist and abusive language on Oct. 26. The U.S. Justice Department included a transcript of the voicemail sent by the man in an affidavit submitted to the Ohio Northern District Court.
“I hope you and your family get what’s coming to you,” the 46-year-old is quoted as saying in one part of the message.
Court documents stated in other parts, Fowler used offensive language, including the N-word, three times on the recording. Additionally, he made references to lynching and mentioned various police-involved shootings, expressing how displeased he was with what he believed was Byers’ reluctance to prosecute officers. He also mentioned by name Theresa Gomez, a woman who lost her life in a police-involved shooting just weeks before the Oct. 3 call.
According to court records, Fowler also claimed that for Byers not to press charges against officers involved in Gomez’s death, the officers must have engaged in sexual acts with the DA.
“You’re not going to hold your officers accountable?” he said, “I guess we are going to have to.”
Byers has been seen as pro-cop, defending officers’ right to use deadly force. In an op-ed for the Las Cruces Sun-News in July 2023, he wrote about how the people have authorized “Police Officers to enforce the law in our collective name.”
“That authorization includes the use of deadly force, a very complex topic,” he added.
Fowler expressed on the voicemail that officers should be held accountable when people are killed.
The district attorney told FBI agents that the threats on the voicemail had impacted him, and since he received them, he has experienced “psychological and physiological changes.” The former Navy officer likened it to when he was in the active military and was deployed in hostile territory.
FBI agents identified Fowler as the caller by tracing the phone call through Verizon records. Subsequently, they interviewed Fowler on Nov. 16.
At first, the man denied leaving the voice message but later said “maybe” he had some involvement in the call. When asked why he left the voicemail, he said, “Probably because of the crime the cops committed. You can’t do nothing without being pinned against the wall,” he said, according to the Las Cruces Sun-News.
Fowler was then asked why he zeroed in on New Mexico, a state over 1,400 miles away from his state, and he said, according to Cleveland.com, “Because you turn the news on every f—king day, and you see this s—t happened, and nobody does a damn thing about it.”
He continued, “So now, you redress your government, and now you get in trouble for redressing your government?”
He also noted he had not visited New Mexico nor left his home state since 2015 but has grown frustrated by all of the police brutality in the nation, and that angst prompted him to call Byers, according to court records.
“When something bad happens to somebody else, when they do nothing to stop anything, I don’t understand why that’s bad to say, ‘an eye for an eye,’ ” Fowler said. “I understand what you’re saying. I just … every time, it just ramps me up … and there is no accountability whatsoever.”
Authorities arrested Fowler on Wednesday, Nov. 29, and he was ordered by U.S. District Magistrate Judge James Grimes in Cleveland to remain in federal custody for two days, leaving only on Friday, Dec. 1, for his first hearing on the charge.
Fowler was released after the hearing on a $20,000 unsecured bond. The unsecured bond will only require him to pay the five figures if he violates the conditions of his release.
