Garner Inmate Indicted On Federal Bombing Threat

By Andrew Gorosko

BRIDGEPORT — A federal grand jury on March 17 returned an indictment charging an inmate being held at Garner Correctional Institution in Newtown with two criminal counts involving a bomb threat made against the offices of two federal agencies located in Norwalk.

The grand jury indicted Glen Sharkany, 40, with one count of making a bomb threat and with one count of conveying false information, according to a statement from Nora Dannehy, who is the Acting US Attorney for Connecticut.

The indictment alleges that on September 29, 2008, Sharkany sent a letter to the Social Security Administration in Norwalk in which he had placed a diagram of an explosive device and included the wording, “I’m going to blow up your office and the IRS office as well.” Both of those federal offices are located at 24 Belden Avenue in Norwalk.

The first count of the indictment states that through the mailed threat, Sharkany “knowingly and willfully threatened to kill, injure and intimidate employees of the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service…and to unlawfully damage and destroy a building and other real and personal property.” Sharkany allegedly made the mailed threat while being held as a prisoner at Garner.

The indictment’s second count states that through the letter to the Social Security Administration, Sharkany intentionally provided false and misleading information, prompting the charge of conveying false information.

If he is convicted of the alleged crimes, Sharkany would face a maximum prison term of ten years and a maximum fine of $250,000 on each of the two counts.

The indictment is only a criminal charge and not evidence of guilt, Ms Dannehy said. It will be the government’s burden to provide guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at a fair trial, she said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the US Postal Inspection Service, and the US Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General investigated the case against Sharkany.

In Garner, Sharkany is serving a five-year prison term on a conviction for sexual assault. Sharkany has been a state prisoner since last June 9. He was sentenced to the five-year term last August 13.

Court records indicate that Sharkany was arrested on June 7, 2008, by Naugatuck police on the sexual assault charge stemming from an incident that occurred there on April 1, 2008.

In Waterbury Superior Court last August, Sharkany was sentenced to 15 years in prison, to be suspended after he serves five years, plus 15 years probation after prison for a conviction on sexual assault in a spousal or cohabiting relationship.