It’s one thing to express an opinion about elected officials. That’s the American Way. Making threats, though? That can lead to real trouble.
Just ask 27-year-old Derek Lopez of El Paso. The graduate student and teaching assistant at Illinois State University has been charged in federal court with making threats against President Donald Trump.
Law enforcement arrested Lopez on Tuesday. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Lopez has a detention hearing scheduled for Monday afternoon at the federal courthouse in Peoria. If he’s ultimately convicted, Derek Lopez faces a maximum prison sentence of five years.
Apparently, Lopez’s trouble with authorities hasn’t been limited to threats to the president. On October 17, Lopez was arrested in Normal on charges of disorderly conduct and criminal damage to property. He’s alleged to have flipped a Turning Point USA student group’s table and tearing down promotional fliers on campus.
The investigation into Lopez’s threatening of Donald Trump was led by the FBI, the FBI’s Springfield Office, the U.S. Secret Service, the El Paso Police Department, the Woodford County Sheriff’s Office, and the ISU Police Department.