Floyd Ray Roseberry (via DOJ court filing)
The North Carolina man accused of threatening to set off a bomb at the Library of Congress — apparently while under the influence of what turned out to be a dangerous combination of prescription psychiatric drugs — has pleaded guilty to a felony.
Floyd Ray Roseberry, 51, admitted Friday to making a threat to use explosive materials in connection with his arrest in August 2021, when he drove his black Chevrolet pickup truck to a building at the Library of Congress and live-streaming threatening statements.
“Clear the block, clear the block,” he said, according to charging documents. “Joe Biden I’m not hurting nobody, but I think these flags need to go to half-staff brotha.'”
“I got two and a half pounds of tannerite,” Roseberry also said, referring to a type of incendiary explosive. “Go ahead and get ‘em all in the building, but I’m telling you Biden, if these windows pop this bomb goes and there’s five of ‘em here.”
Roseberry was eventually taken into custody after an hours-long standoff. In the end, there was no bomb.
Almost one year later, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras agreed to release Roseberry from custody into home confinement. According to a forensic psychiatric exam, Roseberry had been ordered to take medications that, in combination, were not appropriate for someone with his mental health issues.
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Roseberry, who had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and PTSD, was apparently taking Adderall and Valium at the time he made the threats, a combination that could lead to “manic and/or psychotic episodes,” Contreras noted in his August 2022 ruling.
“Mr. Roseberry had been prescribed these drugs by his local primary care physician—not a psychiatrist,” Contreras wrote at the time. The judge had also found that “there is a genuine dispute whether Mr. Roseberry actually made a threat to use a weapon of mass destruction.”
In determining that Roseberry was not a danger to the community, Contreras said that the defendant “is now on a stable medication regimen with drugs prescribed by a psychiatrist at the D.C. Jail. He has been stable for months and moved out of the mental health unit.”
Court documents indicate that as of December 2022, Roseberry had been in “full compliance” with the conditions of his release — so much so that the government didn’t oppose his request to go fishing on his own at a lake near his property without having to be accompanied by his wife, who is a psychiatric nurse.
Roseberry faces a maximum of 10 years behind bars. He had also been charged with threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction against the United States, which carries a potential life sentence. Prosecutors will presumably drop that charge when Roseberry is sentenced.
Contreras, a Barack Obama appointee, reportedly set a tentative sentencing date for the week of June 12. He said he wanted to give investigators enough time to assess Roseberry’s “serious claims of diminished capacity,” according to reports.
Roseberry will be allowed to remain on home confinement pending sentencing.
