Death Threats Against Prosecutor Alleged

MANHATTAN (CN) - An accountant indicted on grand larceny charges was arrested and charged with threatening to kill the assistant district attorney handling the case -- the same prosecutor who supervised a case that led to his conviction on similar charges 14 years ago.

Jack Chang, 54, of Bayside, Queens, allegedly sent threatening letters to the home and office of Gilda Mariani, chief of the money laundering and tax crimes unit in the district attorney's office.

One letter was mailed from inside the building, prosecutors said. Chang had been in the office on June 4-5 in connection with the latest charge against him.

Both letters call her evil and contain nearly identical messages.

"I finally got my 9 mil gun and I am insane, you are responsible for my insanity and I will make sure that you get at least one for each and every year I spend incarcerated," the letter sent to her home stated. "I could hire someone to do the job for me or have someone from the cartel come in from the outside to do the job and leave, but I want the pleasure of doing it myself and if I am caught to make headlines."

The letter, addressed to Mariani's husband, contained white powder which preliminary analysis determined to be corn starch, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement. It also featured a drawing of a tombstone bearing the prosecutors' name and the years 1958-2009.

Chang was arrested at home Tuesday, where officials found a computer printout of Mariani's biography, and drafts of other letters threatening her, prosecutors said. One letter addressed to her, found in a garbage can in front of the house, stated, "You will be captured and before you are sent to hell you will taste hell on earth."

Another one pieced together from scraps found in a wastebasket warns that her body would be "evaporated" in hydrochloric acid and that Chang would make a video of the event and send a copy to her loved ones.

Chang was sentenced to three years behind bars back in 1995, but served just over one year. He already faced charges of grand larceny and scheming to defraud for allegedly stealing $80,000 of his clients' money.

The new charges, which include coercion, aggravated harassment and stalking, together carry a possible sentence of up to 13 years.

Defense attorney Robert Reuland said his client will plead not guilty.

"All they talk about is that Mr. Chang had a motive to send these two letters, and that is probably true for several hundred people in New York City," his lawyer said.

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