An elderly anti-gay bigot who threatened to burn down the historic Stonewall Inn in Manhattan is asking for early release less a year into his sentence — after he says a guard at his federal prison slept through his having a heart attack.
Robert Fehring, 75, who was sentenced to 30 months last August after waging a years-long campaign of threats against several New York LGBTQ+ organizations, says in a recent filing that he had a heart attack the night of Feb. 1, but wasn’t hospitalized until the next day, about 12 hours later.
Fehring is slated to appear in person before his sentencing judge, U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert, on Thursday, and a number of his victims are expected to speak in opposition of his early release.
In a motion Fehring filed pro se last month, he said he complained about an erratic heart rate at 11 p.m. on Feb. 1, but staff at his federal prison at Fort Dix., N.J., brushed off his concerns and didn’t check on him for several hours.
Fehring saw the officer on duty in his unit “sleeping with his feet up on the desk” in his office at about 3:30 a.m., according to his filing, and after he awoke, the officer said the prison didn’t have the staff to immediately take him to a hospital.
“The [Bureau of Prisons] officers at the time of the Petitioner’s heart attack did not take the situation seriously, and necessary treatment was delayed for many hours,” he wrote “As a result, the Petitioner’s life was in serious jeopardy, and contributed to many more heart muscle cells being destroyed than necessary.”
Since the heart attack, prison staff has ignored other health complaints, leading him to send e-mails to a doctor begging for follow-up appointments, he says.
He also argues that the prison system hasn’t given adequate treatment for his many long-term physical ailments.
Federal prosecutors counter that Ferhing’s faltering health and long-term illnesses didn’t stop him from writing 65 poisonous letters since 2013, threatening to detonate bombs at parades and events, and to shoot people at the Stonewall Inn and burn the iconic West Village bar down.
In one letter sent to the co-owners of the Stonewall Inn, Fehring wrote: “All of you should be shot, hung, exterminated … we will blow up/burn your establishments down. We will shoot those who frequent your dens of filth, s–t, scum and perversion.”
In another letter to a city Pride organizer, he promised an attack that would make the 2016 Orlando Pulse nightclub massacre “look like a cakewalk.”
When the FBI searched Fehring’s home in Bayport in November 2021, agents found photos of a June 2021 Pride event in East Meadow, L.I., two loaded shotguns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, two stun guns, an American flag-patterned machete and a stamped envelope addressed to an attorney involved in LGBTQ causes containing the remains of a dead bird.
“Neither his advanced age nor his medical conditions — most of which pre-date his incarceration — prevented the defendant from carrying out an eight-year long threats campaign,” wrote assistant U.S. Attorney Rachel Shanies. “These conditions did not prevent him from stealing 20 LGBTQ+ flags that were placed beyond the defendant’s physical reach. Nor did his age or medical condition prevent him from running into a room with a loaded firearm in defiance of lawful orders from federal agents.”
His post heart-attack health “is a condition that can be managed while in custody” and he has received significant treatment and care, the feds contend.
