Courts and Justice
Feds charge controversial Kent State University professor with lying to FBI
Published: Apr. 23, 2018, 3:08 p.m.
Julio Pino, a controversial associate professor at Kent State University, was charged Monday with lying to the FBI. (cleveland.com file photo)
Eric Heisig, cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Federal prosecutors on Monday charged a controversial Kent State University professor known for his anti-Israel views with lying to the FBI.
Julio Pino, 57, of Kent is charged with one count of making a false statement to law enforcement. The history professor was charged by way of a criminal information, which usually means a plea agreement is forthcoming. His attorney Warner Mendenhall confirmed Monday that he is in negotiations with the U.S. Attorney's Office to resolve Pino's case.
Pino, who has worked at Kent State since 1992 and specializes in Latin American history and the Third World, has a history of making controversial statements. The federal charge against him, though, appears to stem from an FBI investigation into threats made by a St. Louis man against a family court judge presiding over his child custody battle.
(You can read the charging document here or at the bottom of this story. Warning: the information contains harsh language.)
Mendenhall said Pino has put in to retire from Kent State University at the end of this semester. He declined to discuss the specifics of Pino's case, citing the ongoing plea negotiations.
Kent State spokesman Eric Mansfield said in a statement Monday afternoon that Pino was suspended after he was charged. He is also prohibited from going onto any Kent State campus, Mansfield said.
Federal prosecutors say Pino lied to agents regarding his interactions with a Facebook friend identified as "J.E." Pino posted statements and images about J.E. and J.E.'s custody issues, according to the information.
J.E. appears to be Jason Eyer, a Missouri man who pleaded guilty to tampering with a judicial proceeding in August 2016, according to Missouri court records.
The criminal information largely focuses on an online communications Pino and J.E. had on Sept. 11, 2015.
J.E. wrote that "I'm playing the game backwards. and winning! ... I will kill 100s of people if they take my rights as a father away!", the information says.
Pino said, "Yes, in military terms this is known as 'the Parthian shot.'"
The communications continued, with J.E. writing that "They're about to meet to [the] Monster they've created," according to prosecutors.
Pino said, "Devour them, [J.E.]" His friend responded, "Thank You! I will!", the information states.
Two months later, J.E. started posting threats against the family court judge on Facebook. He also wrote on Jan. 11, 2016 that he loved Pino, "... even if he does eventually do something that most consider horrible, I'll still love him because I know him in a deeper way than most of you even could."
Authorities in St. Louis arrested J.E. the same day.
A week later, FBI agents from Cleveland interviewed Pino in Miami about J.E. He told agents he had "never heard" of J.E. or "maybe I heard of him through the news." He later said it's possible J.E. "could have heard of me and made up this conversation, invented it," the information states.
An FBI investigation into Pino, a Cuban immigrant, was made public in 2016 as agents interviewed students about him to see if he had espoused any radical views, according to reports at the time.
Pino dismissed the allegations at the time as baseless. He denied ties to any political organizations, in the United States or abroad, and said he has never discussed Islamic politics with students, faculty or campus employees.
"I do not endorse violence," Pino said at a news conference in January 2016. "I do not advocate violence, nor do I practice it."
Still, Pino has made his anti-Israel views known during his time at Kent State. In 2014 he posted an "open letter" to "academic friends of Israel" that said they are "directly responsible for the murder of over 1,400 Palestinian children, women and elderly civilians."
He also wrote; "Your names are scrawled on every bullet fired, bomb dropped, body buried and burnt forehead in Gaza."
Pino also shouted "death to Israel" during a speech by a former Israeli diplomat in October 2011.
In 2007, he was cited on websites as being linked to an extremist Islamic website that espoused a holy war. Kent State officials at the time said the extremist site had no connection to Pino or to the university.
Pino also wrote a column in 2003 in the Kent Stater, the campus newspaper, that explored the motives of a Palestinian suicide bomber.
Mendenhall said the government has been careful not to infringe on his client's free-speech rights during its investigation.
Pino's criminal case was assigned to Chief U.S. District Judge Patricia Gaughan.
This article was updated to correct Pino's age.
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