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NL (Mount Clipping in Spoco Below) By BILL BLAIR THE TRIBUNE-DEMOCRAT A federal magistrate on Monday ordered a Johnstown man to be held on a charge he threatened the life of U.S. Rep. John Murtha. Donald Lee Fenton, 41, of the 2400 block of Bedford St., is accused of threatening to murder Murtha while talking on the telephone Dec. 3 with > a Claims agent for an insurance com- | Dany. U.S. Magistrate Keith Pesto issued the ruling following a preliminary examination — similar to a prelimi- nary hearing involving state charges before a district justice — in U.S. Dis- trict Court in Johnstown to assess whether the government had met its burden of probable cause. Pesto ruled after hearing testimo- ny from two witnesses for the gov- ernment. The witnesses included Stony- creek Township police Officer Kevin Price and FBI Special Agent Paul Wilson. Price arrested Fenton initially on charges of making terroristic threats and harassing Richland Township insurance agént Randy ° Leventry. o bria County Court on those charges, During the phone conversation, the federal complaint accuses Fen- . ton of threatening to “blow Con- gressman Murtha’s head off” and kill Leventry and-everyone in Lev- entry’s Erie Insurance office. Leventry was handling an insur- | Fenton is awaiting trial in Cam. . ance claim for damage done to Fenton’s truck by a local repair garage whose workers failed to . refill the truck’s engine oil, resulting in the engine being ruined. Both Price and Wilson testi- fied that their subsequent investiga- tions revealed that Fenton was angry with Murtha, a Johnstown Democrat, because Fenton felt the damage done to his vehicle and other problems in his life were all part ofa conspiracy against him by Murtha and Murtha’s aide, John Hugya. Price and Wilson .said they learned that Fenton believed Murtha Fenton “ (Indicnte page, name of THE FT CIiBUMKE— det STF wrt} Date: jis /98 Edition: JSeptes p. “mn Can CATES ao Character: 12/3/49 COs ea tee or Classification: 2 Submitting Offices (Johnstown man held on charge that he threatened Rep. Murtha that Fenton was angry with the con- gressman because Fenton claimed that Murtha had stolen Fenton’s eco- nomic recovery plans for Cambria County, which included plans to revitalize the Johnstown-Cambria airport, the former Glosser Building in downtown Johnstown and installing a mass-transit system around the city. Pesto described the case as one of the most unusual he has been| involved in. “This is bazaar,” he.said. Fenton was returned to the county jail, where he is being held in lieu of bond on the state charges. Pesto told the lawyers involved to schedule a detention hearing on the federal charges. was out to get him because Murtha , was aware that Fenton “knew too much about Murtha and Hugya.” Price and Wilson also testified | . . MNEnT?1? © newspuper, cily and SMC ery CAT be ea of 9A--PC ~6YY/O _.PU-£S. 644-36 Ae == ' t ge B05