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City judge, son targets of death threat

By Marlene Naanes | mnaanes@am-ny.com

May 5, 2008

A Brooklyn judge and her lawyer son were the targets of a death threat just months after someone spray-painted racial slurs about the judge in a courthouse elevator, officials said Sunday.

Someone cut letters from a newspaper and fashioned a one-page letter that threatened to kill Surrogate Court Judge Diana Johnson and her son Autrey Johnson, a Queens attorney, the officials said. The letter was sent to Johnson's office Thursday, prompting elected officials and community leaders yesterday to call for police protection for the judge and to launch an investigation into the threat.

"One thing we do not accept is intimidation," said Johnson, who added that she did not think the incidents represented the sentiment of Brooklynites. "We will not be deterred in what we have to do."

Johnson, who was elected as the state's first black Surrogate Court judge last fall, was targeted in racial slurs spray painted in an elevator in January, shortly after she took her post. No one has been arrested in that crime, which has not been directly tied to the death threat, officials said.

Police said yesterday that the Hate Crime Task Force is investigating both incidents. The NYPD is working with the Office of Court Administration on security for the judge but police would not disclose details.

It is unclear why Johnson, who in her post oversees claims on estates, was targeted in the death threat but elected officials believe it is an extension of the earlier racial epithet.

"We have to call it what it is: this is blatant racism," said Rep. Yvette Clark (D-Brooklyn).