Veteran Facing Terrorism Charge Pleads No Contest To Death Threats Against Judge

MOUNT CLEMENS (WWJ/AP) -- A man has pleaded no contest to making bomb and death threats against a Macomb County judge.

The Macomb Daily reports Keith Rebar pleaded Monday in connection with threats made last September. The 55-year-old Washington Township man was accused of threatening to place bombs under Judge Katherine Viviano's car if he didn't get favorable rulings in a child custody case.

Rebar, a 13-year Marine veteran, could get into the Veterans Treatment Court and be sentenced next month to time served - roughly 11 months.

Rebar faces one felony count of false report or threat of terrorism.

"This threat is very specific as to who it is — and not just that I'm gonna kill them or I'm gonna hurt them," County Prosecutor Eric Smith said last September, "but specific ways that they're gonna go about doing it with a pressure cooker bomb and/or a shooting."

"When it comes to this level, this specificity about pressure cooker bombs and shooting and as a direct result of specific rulings…Well, given the way of the world and how dangerous it can be at times, law enforcement wanted to act quickly," Smith said.

Defense attorney Leon Weiss says Rebar didn't intend to follow through but his client "understands" he was wrong.

A no contest plea isn't an admission of guilt but treated that way for sentencing purposes.

Viviano is the sister of Michigan Supreme Court Justice David Viviano.

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