By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A St. Joseph man has been sentenced in federal court for making a bomb threat against the Social Security office in St. Joseph.
Federal District Judge Brian Wimes sentenced 32-year-old James Curtman to 18 months in federal prison without parole.
In August, Curtman confessed to threatening to blow up the St. Joseph Social Security office, pleading guilty to one count of influencing a federal officer by threat.
Federal prosecutors say Curtman, during a phone appointment in June of 2021, began cursing and yelling at a Social Security employee. Prosecutors say the employee attempted to help, but Curtman reverted to demeaning and offensive language and told the employee he would make a bomb and blow up the building. The employee placed the call on speaker for a guard to hear and when Curtman continued to curse, she hung up.
The bomb threat forced the office to close early that day and the next day.
The employee told investigators she worried about Curtman’s tone of voice, rage, and close location of his address. She said she was worried he would come to the Social Security Administration office and commit violence.
Curtman has a prior conviction for issuing a terrorist threat in August 2020 for using abusive language when talking by phone to employees of the Department of Social Services in Rolla.
Curtman also has a history of threat-related conduct for which he was not criminally charged, including a threat in May 2017 to blow up U.S. Bank, as well as a series of misdemeanor convictions for property damage and threatening the peace.