(This story was updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.)
A 62-year-old Philadelphia resident has pleaded not guilty to a charge that he used text messages to threaten to skin alive and kill a political operative from northwestern Pennsylvania who had gone on social media to recruit poll watchers a month before the Nov. 5 election.
The defendant, John C. Pollard, entered the plea at his arraignment on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Erie, where he is being prosecuted. Pollard appeared via videoconference before Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard A. Lanzillo.
Pollard was arrested on Oct. 21, the same day the indictment against him was unsealed . He was released and remains free on an unsecured bond of $10,000.
Pollard at the arraignment acknowledged that he is charged with a felony count of transmitting interstate threats and that he faces a maximum of five years in federal prison if convicted. He said little otherwise.
Pollard’s lawyer, Kathryn Kitt Dyer, an assistant federal public defender, said Pollard wants a jury trial.