Stanton man is sentenced to 6 years for threatening judges

An Orange County man was sentenced to more than six years in state prison Monday for making criminal threats against two judges he believed were conspiring against him.

Richard Senator, 52, of Stanton was convicted this year of making the threats against William Whitely and Norman Delaterre, both state workers' compensation judges, after unfavorable court rulings on a claim stemming from a back injury Senator sustained in the late 1980s.

Prosectors said Senator told Whitely in his chambers that he had prison contacts who would "punish" the judge. They also said Senator accused Delaterre in e-mails of being a terrorist who would have to be punished accordingly.

Senator served six years in prison on a prior conviction for making criminal threats against a judge, commissioner and attorney in 1997.