A pizza stunt that started online has ended with real prison time in Hillsborough County. A Plant City man admitted sending bogus delivery orders to the homes of two local judges and was sentenced Tuesday to nearly two years behind bars, a punishment local court officials say comes amid rising concern over harassment aimed at the judiciary.
Jonathan Mark Miller, 49, acknowledged placing the online orders and received a term described in court as “nearly two years,” according to the Tampa Bay Times. The Times reports that the bogus orders used the judges’ names and contact information and that sentencing followed the prosecutor’s presentation of digital evidence tying Miller to the scheme.
Digital Clues Link Big Pizza Tabs to Court Filings
Investigators say subpoenas and digital forensics traced the online orders to an IP address associated with Miller’s home, with two separate orders placed in early March and canceled before they ever reached a doorstep, according to The Florida Bar. The sheriff’s affidavit cited one March 4 order for $381.70 and a second March 5 order for $252.88, and noted that one of the judges had a temporary-injunction hearing set for the same day the first order went in.
Local judicial leaders told the Bar the incidents stand out as the first known “pizza-doxing” cases in Florida’s state court system, a distinction no one in the courthouse seems eager to repeat.
Judges Nationwide On Edge as Pizza Doxing Spreads
Officials say the Tampa case slots into a broader pattern of unsolicited pizza deliveries and doxing aimed at judges across the country, a tactic federal authorities and members of Congress have labeled a form of intimidation, according to The Washington Post. Many of the reported deliveries have been placed using the name of Daniel Anderl, the late son of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas, a disturbing trend that helped spur Congress to pass the Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act…