Columbus Man Pleads Guilty to Threatening Local Reproductive Health Services Facility

A Columbus, Ohio, man pleaded guilty in federal court this morning for making threats to a local reproductive health services facility.

Carlos Manuel Rodriguez Brime, 25, admitted to threatening to kill a patient who indicated she planned to get an abortion at the clinic, and for threatening to bring a bomb to the clinic.

Brime made two separate telephone threats on April 11, 2021, to a local reproductive health care clinic.

During the first call, he told clinic staff, “My girlfriend is a patient there and I’m going to bring the heat. If she kills my baby, I’m going to kill her.” A short time later, he called the clinic again and said, “My organization will be bringing a bomb to your facility. I suggest you close your doors.”

Brime admitted to violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act – which makes it a federal crime to threaten the use of force to intimidate anyone receiving or providing reproductive health services – and to transmitting a threat in interstate commerce.

Threatening freedom of access to clinic entrances is a federal crime punishable by up to one year in prison and transmitting threats in interstate commerce carries a potential maximum sentence of five years in prison. Congress sets the maximum statutory sentence. Sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the Court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.

“People should be able to freely access clinics that provide reproductive health services, free from violence and threats of violence,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “This defendant threatened to kill a woman because she was seeking reproductive health services and further threatened to bomb the clinic providing those services. This conviction should send a strong message that the Justice Department will hold accountable those who would resort to violence and threats of violence to deny people access to reproductive health clinics in our country.”

Brime was indicted by a grand jury and arrested in September 2021. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division; U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker for the Southern District of Ohio; Special Agent in Charge William Rivers of the FBI Cincinnati Division; and Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant announced the plea entered into today before U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus Jr. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Emily Czerniejewski and S. Courter Shimeall and Civil Rights Division Trial Attorney Sanjay Patel are representing the United States in this case.