North Carolina man indicted over antisemitic threat letters sent to Holocaust Memorial leaders

A federal grand jury in South Florida has indicted a North Carolina man accused of mailing letters that threatened violence against Jewish people to officers and executives of the Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach and two other Jewish organizations, BNO News reported Monday, citing an announcement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.

Red Sidewalks could not open the prosecutors’ release, so the details of the indictment below come from BNO News and have not been independently confirmed.

Brian Charles, 58, is charged with mailing threatening communications, which carries up to five years in federal prison if he is convicted, according to BNO. Prosecutors allege he mailed the letters in July while staying in the Charlotte area. Besides the memorial’s leaders, the letters were addressed to people at the American Jewish Committee’s Palm Beach office and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, all at South Florida addresses. Two of the recipients are under U.S. Secret Service protection, prosecutors said, without naming them.

Court records say the letters carried the same antisemitic message, including a graphic image and threats of violence, BNO reported. Charles first appeared before a federal magistrate judge in western North Carolina, and a court ordered him held after he was brought to South Florida. The FBI is investigating with help from the Secret Service.

Charles was arrested in September and later moved to federal custody in Miami, Charlotte station WBTV reported in October. He was first charged in a criminal complaint, which JNS reported in September.

An indictment is a formal accusation, not a finding of guilt. No lawyer for Charles was named in the reports.

The memorial is at 1933 Meridian Ave. A commemoration of the anniversary of Kristallnacht was held there Monday evening, the day the indictment was announced, according to an Instagram post by Commissioner Laura Dominguez, who attended.