California Woman sentenced to more than 8 years of conspiracy to kill the Supreme Court judge

A California resident who tried to assassinate the judge of the American Supreme Court Brett Kavanaugh in his Maryland home was sentenced to more than eight years in prison on Friday by a federal judge, who inflicted a sanction which is much more indulgent than the recommendation of the Ministry of Justice.

Sophie Roske, a transgender woman charged under her legal name, Nicholas Roske, had experienced a maximum sentence in life. US district judge Deborah Boardman sentenced her to eight years and a month behind bars followed by a life supervision. The prosecutors had asked for a prison sentence of at least 30 years old, which was the bottom of the range recommended by the directives of determining the sentence.

Roske, then 26 years old, had a pistol, a knife, zipped links and burglary tools in his possession when a taxi deposited him outside the house of Kavanaugh in Chevy Chase, in Maryland, just after 1 am on June 8, 2022. Noting two American marshals deputted the residence, Roske continued to walk in the street and took a phone call. She then composed 911, said she had suicidal and homicide thoughts and said she needed psychiatric help.

The judge said that the police knew nothing about Roske’s plot until she called 911 and that his crime reported no. Boardman described Roske’s conduct as “reprehensible” but assigned him the abandonment of the conspiracy before the police detects his presence in the Kavanaugh district.

“This is an atypical accused in an atypical case,” she said.

Roske apologized to Kavanaugh and the family of justice “for the considerable stress that I put them”.

“I was described as a monster, and this tragic error that I made will follow me for the rest of my life,” said Roske before learning his sentence.

Boardman acknowledged that Roske’s intrigue caused the “real evil” to Kavanaugh and his family.

“He is a judge of the Supreme Court, but he is a human being,” said the judge.

More targeted judges

After his arrest, Roske told investigators that she was angry with a disclosement project suggesting that the Supreme Court intended to cancel Roe v. Wade, the historic abortion case, according to an Affidavit of the FBI. Roske was also turned upside down by the school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, and thought that Kavanaugh would vote to loosen the laws on firearms control, said Affidavit.

The case of Roske underlines the omnipresent threat of political violence in a polarized nation: the number of threats and “inappropriate communications” intended for federal judges and other employees of the courts more than quadrupled over a period of seven years, of 926 incidents in 2015 at 4.511 in 2021, according to the Marshals service.

Roske targeted three of the high court judges, prosecutors said. Killing a judge could change the decisions of the court of nine members “for the decades to come,” wrote Roske on a encryption platform encrypted to another user in May 2022. Roske added: “I shoot for 3.”

Roske, 29, from Sim Valley, California, searched the internet reception addresses and other information, including home penetration techniques and quietly killing someone. Roske also wrote on the death of judges in encrypted messages.

“The thought of Roe V Wade and the gay marriage being repealed,” wrote Roske.

‘I am very happy not to have continued’

Roske pleaded guilty in April for an attempted accusation of assassination without concluding an agreement on the plea.

Prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of at least 30 years old, followed by a supervised liberation life.

“The accused’s objective – targeting and killing judges to seek to modify the decision of a court – is an odious form of terrorism and strikes at the heart of the constitution of the United States and our prescribed government system,” they wrote.

Roske’s lawyers asked for an eight -year -old prison sentence. They said she was ashamed and full of remorse for having frightened Kavanaugh and her family.

“I am very happy to have continued,” Roske wrote in a letter subject to the court. “I am also sorry to have contributed to a tendency of political violence in American politics. I can now see how destructive and wrong these acts are, and I am ashamed of not having recognized these things earlier.”

Mental health struggles

Roske’s lawyers said she had trouble with mental illness and her gender identity. She came to herself as a transgender woman in 2020, but kept her parents’ secret. She recently started to receive sexual care during her imprisonment, according to her lawyers.

Roske was seriously depressed and suicidal in May 2022 when Politico published a project disclosed the opinion of the rights to abortion of the Supreme Court. Roske decided that she could “give meaning to her life” by preventing the Supreme Court from overthrowing Roe c. Wade, said lawyers.

“Above all, she stopped harming another person,” they wrote. “Her actions have resulted in a large part of isolation and an insufficiently treated mental illness. But in her deepest moment of crisis, she showed her humanity.”

Prosecutors said Roske’s mental illness was no excuse.

“The sentence here must forcefully transmit to the accused and others than to take things in his own hands as a judge, jury and executioner is fully condemned and will be punished,” they wrote.

The parents of Roske, Vernon and Colleen, also apologized to Kavanaugh during the condemnation hearing. Vernon Roske said he wanted to have communicated better with Sophie of his personal difficulties.

“I should have pushed better care for her,” he added.