Clay Waller charged by feds with making Internet threats

An investigation by the FBI has prompted federal charges to be filed against Clay Waller, alleging he made Internet threats against his missing wife's sister, authorities said Friday.

A felony charge of making a threat on an interstate communications device was filed against Waller Friday in U.S. District Court, said federal prosecutor Keith Sorrell. Such a charge carries a range of punishment up to five years, he said.

"He has been charged by our office," Sorrell said. "It was for making a threat over the Internet. There's a federal statute that makes that a crime."

Waller, the man prosecutors have called a suspect in his estranged wife Jacque Waller's June 1 disappearance, made an initial court appearance Friday afternoon before Magistrate Judge Lewis Blanton at the Rush H. Limbaugh Sr. U.S. Courthouse in Cape Girardeau.

The U.S. attorney's office asked that Waller -- who posted bond on his state charges Friday -- be detained without bond, which has placed him in the custody of the U.S. Marshal's Service. But Blanton did set a detention hearing for 10:30 a.m. Thursday and a preliminary hearing for Sept. 16.

The U.S. attorney's office typically asks for detention in an "overwhelming number" of their cases, Sorrell said.

The charge came the same day that Waller posted bond on his state charges of stealing and harassment, though he was never released, said Lt. David James of the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department. James said Waller was no longer at the county jail, but he did not know where the marshals were holding him.

Waller's lawyer, Scott Reynolds, said the reason Waller posted his $27,000 bond, with the assistance of a bondsman, was a legal maneuver to ensure that Waller would get time served for the federal charge. Reynolds said he found out the day following an Aug. 23 bond-reduction hearing that additional charges were possible.

When Reynolds learned that there were, in fact, federal charges coming, Waller posted bond, which Reynolds said he could have done at any time.

"We didn't want to bond him out until it would do him some good," Reynolds said.

In the federal judicial system, time served only counts when a person is being held on federal charges. The charges wouldn't be filed until Waller was not in custody on state charges, Reynolds said. Waller bonded out Friday knowing the charges were coming, Reynolds said, never expecting he would be freed.

"He was already in custody and we knew those charges were coming, so we decided to do it this way," Reynolds said.

Reynolds said numerous threats have been made against his client online and nothing has been done about those. He is gathering information on those threats. Reynolds said it is his understanding that Waller is being held at the Pemiscot County Jail. The public federal defender's office will be handling federal charges while Reynolds will handle state charges.

Meanwhile, Jacque Waller's sister Cheryl Brenneke said she was the one who filed a complaint when she saw that Clay had made threats against her life on a popular online forum known as Topix.

"He said something like, 'If you hurt those kids, I'll kill you. I don't care if it gets me 15 or 20 years," said Brenneke, who has custody of the Waller's 5-year-old triplets. He made the threats before he was arrested on the state charges, she said.

She suspected it was Clay who made the threats and the FBI investigation confirmed it, she said.

"So we are just thrilled to death he's still in jail," Brenneke said.

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