By KARA O’NEIL
Staff writer
An inmate at the SCI Forest state prison is facing more than 170 charges for sending “hundreds” of threatening letters to his ex-girlfriend.
A Marienville state police trooper said he was contacted in late May by a security captain at the prison who gave the officer a letter written by inmate Terence Poole, 53, to his daughter.
In the letter, Poole threatens that when he is released from prison he will kill his ex-girlfriend, her boyfriend and himself, and he instructs his daughter to call his ex and tell her that her life is in danger, police said.
A criminal complaint filed through district judge Daniel L. Miller’s office says the trooper called the woman who was threatened in the letter and she told him she had dated Poole for two or three years but that the relationship ended in March 2014, about six months before Poole was arrested and incarcerated.
She said that while Poole was in prison, he sent her “hundreds” of letters even though she only sent him one letter asking him to stop sending her letters and leave her alone, the complaint said.
Letters were also sent to her son who lives with her, the complaint said.
The woman said she is very afraid of Poole and “feels that her life is definitely in danger when he is released from prison,” the complaint said. She knows when he gets out she’ll always have to look over her shoulder, according to the complaint.
The woman contacted the prison and asked for a cease communication order for Poole on Oct. 8, 2016, and her request was granted after Poole sent her more threatening letters, the complaint said.
A cease communication order pertaining to the woman’s son was also issued Feb. 5, 2017, the complaint said.
On June 27, 2018, Poole was disciplined for authoring two threatening letters, one to his ex and one to another person, the complaint said.
Poole said he sent the letters knowing he wasn’t permitted to contact her and admitted sending a letter to his daughter in which he threatened his ex, the complaint said.
The trooper asked the woman to send him all the letters from Poole she had, the complaint said. Forty-seven of the 79 letters and postcards from Poole that the trooper received from Poole’s ex-girlfriend “communicated either directly or indirectly, a threat to commit any crime of violence with the intent to terrorize another,” the complaint said.
Poole is facing 173 misdemeanor charges in the case. They include 47 counts each of terroristic threats and stalking and 79 counts of harassment.
Poole is serving a 16-48 month sentence out of Bradford County for receiving stolen property.
A preliminary hearing hasn’t been scheduled.