‘Fedbuster’ Gets 40 Months

A Van Nuys man who is still a suspect in last fall’s arson blazes was sentenced Monday to three years and four months in prison for writing letters under the alias Fedbuster threatening to set fires.

Thomas Lee Larsen, 44, pleaded guilty in January to six counts of sending the letter to fire stations, most located in the San Fernando Valley.

While he has not been charged with setting any fires, federal authorities said Monday they have not ruled Larsen out as a suspect in their ongoing investigation surrounding brush fires that devastated parts of the Southland last fall.

At a sentencing hearing in U. S. District Court in Los Angeles, Larsen apologized for any pain he may have caused the recipients of his letters.

“I am so sorry,” Larsen said. “I wish I could take back that one day last year when everything went collapsing in on me, when I sent the letters out.

“I kick myself every day. Why didn’t I just let things go from the past?”

The Fedbuster letter was sent to 37 Southern California residents and fire stations last August. Larsen, a convicted child molester with a long criminal history, wrote in the letter that he was upset about property that had been seized from him and he demanded an apology from the prosecutors, judges and agents who he claimed were responsible.

Last November, a federal grand jury indicted Larsen on 77 counts of making threats in letters sent through the U. S. mail, which carried a maximum 385 years in prison and a $192.5-million fine if convicted on all counts.

An agreement reached by prosecutors and defense attorneys called for Larsen to plead guilty to six counts of sending the threatening letter to the fire stations in exchange for the dismissal of the remaining counts.

Before imposing a 40-month sentence, U. S. District Court Judge Harry L. Hupp sided with defense attorneys and ruled that Larsen had not been convicted of a crime of violence since the letters threatened to damage property, not people.

Prosecutors disagreed.

“When you say you’re going to harm property through this method, you’re saying you’re going to harm people,” Assistant U. S. Atty. Gregory Jessner argued. “You cannot make that division.”

However, Hupp sided with Jessner when he ruled that Larsen’s letter threatened multiple victims.

Larsen’s attorney, federal Deputy Public Defender Paul Abrams, had also asked Hupp to depart from sentencing guidelines and impose a shorter sentence, citing issues including extraordinary punishment, diminished mental capacity and the potential for Larsen to be victimized in prison.

Abrams argued that Larsen had already suffered a “severe punishment” following the deaths of his parents, with whom he had lived until his arrest last November.

Jessner, the prosecutor, contended that the death of a parent would be painful under any circumstance.

Moments before he was sentenced, Larsen told Hupp that he felt guilty over the death of his father, who he said fell ill with pneumonia after doing heavy yard work. Larsen said had he not been in jail, he would have done the yard work instead.

“I’m having a lot of extra guilty feelings. . . . I may be responsible for his death,” Larsen said.

Abrams also argued that his client suffered from a “significantly reduced capacity” and that he still needs more intensive psychotherapy.

“Mr. Larsen has psychological problems,” Abrams said.

Jessner described Larsen as a child molester who is obsessed with revenge and carries out vendettas.

“When all is said and done,” he said, “Mr. Larsen is a very, very strong danger to the community.”

Hupp subsequently denied Abrams’ request for a shorter sentence as well as Jessner’s request for a longer one.

After the hearing, Jessner described the sentencing as fair. The prosecutor said substantial evidence exists to link Larsen to the fires, but he declined to elaborate.

Abrams said he plans to appeal.

“I’m disappointed,” Abrams said. “The judge didn’t consider mitigating circumstances.”

Of the 77 counts with which he had originally been charged, Larsen faced 33 counts in connection with the Fedbuster letters and another 33 counts for a letter signed Nightcrawler, which threatened to poison baby food and meat. The Nightcrawler letter was sent to residents and preschools in Manhattan Beach.

Other charges concerned his sending letters threatening to kill J. Patrick Maginnis, a Los Angeles criminal defense lawyer who represented Larsen in two different cases, and members of his family.

Larsen also once sent a letter to a judge presiding over one of his cases in which he made a veiled threat on the judge’s daughter. He also wrote a letter to the mother of one of his child victims and threatened her.

Larsen also had been arrested twice on arson charges, once when he was 9 years old and was accused of trying to set fire to a church.