Threats to judges are increasing. Here's what's happening in Massachusetts.
Federal data from the U.S. Marshals Service shows attacks on judges are on the rise.
Between 2022 and 2025 threats to judges increased by 40 percent. Some of the more serious credible death threats were received by Rhode Island U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell. Chilling voicemails were left for him at his office.
"Judge McConnell, he had 400 calls and of those 400 calls, six were death threats. In one of them it was said that Smith and Wesson is going to be paying a visit to your home," said Tom Bond, the President of the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys.
"It's a crisis. It's been a crisis for a long time. As far as I'm concerned, it's accelerating," retired trial judge Jack Lu told WBZ-TV's I-Team.
According to the Massachusetts Trial Court, there were 359 threats made against trial court employees in the state in the last four years and 168 of them were directed at trial judges.
Some of the threats included sending unsolicited pizza deliveries to a judge's home or what's called "pizza doxing."
"Sending the pizza is intimidation of a witness," Lu said. "Those things have the potential to unnerve a judge."
The concern is pushing state legislators in Massachusetts to come up with a bill to keep judges' personal information and addresses private and away from data brokers.
"It will allow a judge to mark his own information as confidential. Let's not wait for something serious to happen before we take this small step in addressing it," Bond said.
Lu said the legislation is overdue.
"I absolutely think it's dangerous to put a judge's home address on the internet. I absolutely do. 'Heck yes,' is my answer," he said.
A federal law was passed to protect federal judges in 2022. The Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act is named after the son of New Jersey District Judge Esther Salas. Her son was shot and killed by a disgruntled attorney at her home in 2020. The gunman found the judge's personal information online.