NOTE: This piece first appeared on NYNewsPress.com.
By Dick LaFontaine with Richard Luthmann
Email ‘Threat’ Charge and the Case of the Vanishing Docket
Richard Luthmann unleashed a barrage of allegations in his August 2 appearance on the extremely popular Two Lees in a Pod podcast, painting himself as the target of a decade-long legal vendetta by Staten Island DA Michael McMahon.
As proof, Luthmann points to a bizarre episode last month: McMahon personally swore out a felony criminal contempt complaint on July 14, claiming he “feared for his safety or life” after receiving a single mass email from Luthmann’s Substack newsletter.
The email wasn’t even about McMahon – it was a repost of an article by a psychiatrist criticizing a New Jersey judge – yet the “distraught” DA alleged it violated a protective order and said the sender was a “stranger” to him.
Luthmann, 45, a former Staten Island lawyer and now an investigative journalist and convicted felon, calls the claim absurd.
“He received one email, and he was fearful for his life… The email didn’t say [any threat],” Luthmann scoffed, noting McMahon had himself subscribed to the newsletter weeks prior.
Luthmann believes the supposed email “threat” was a ploy to lure him back to New York. If a judge approved McMahon’s complaint, Luthmann could have been extradited from Florida and held without bail for months.
But when Luthmann fought back, things took an even stranger turn. He filed a 27-page motion to dismiss the case and disqualify the judge, only to have the scheduled August 1 court hearing mysteriously short-circuited.
“They didn’t let anybody in” to the virtual courtroom that day, Luthmann said, describing how even his 30-odd supporters and reporters were barred from the proceeding. No oral arguments were allowed.
Instead, the court docket briefly showed a “decision reserved” entry – then the entire case docket vanished without a trace.
“F**ing disappeared. The case doesn’t exist… I caught them, and then they just got rid of the docket to make it like it’s nothing,”* Luthmann fumed on the podcast.
He was never notified of any dismissal. The onetime attorney contends the sudden erasure of the record was a blatant cover-up to “pretend I don’t exist” after it became clear he had the upper hand.
“Why would they not even send me an email saying, ‘here’s an order of dismissal’?” he asked. “They want to make it confusing… This is corruption, and it’s very easy to understand corruption”.
Bogus Charge, Fingerprint Plot – “Lawfare” by the Numbers
Luthmann says the recent stir-up is because of missing NYPD fingerprint cards for a 2020 charge.
According to Luthmann, the roots of this saga go back to 2015, when he publicly broke ranks with McMahon. Then a Democrat active in Staten Island politics, Luthmann crossed party lines to endorse McMahon’s opponent in the 2015 DA race and blasted McMahon’s lack of prosecutorial experience.
“Like President Reagan, I was part of the problem for a long time. I used to be a Democrat,” Luthmann said. “God Bless President Trump for showing me the light.”
In 2017, he represented whistleblower Michael Pulizotto, whose complaint led to the demotion of McMahon’s wife, Judge Judith McMahon, which in turn humiliated the McMahons. McMahon never forgot these slights, Luthmann says.
In 2018, the DA (through a special prosecutor) hit Luthmann with what he calls the “fake Facebook case” – criminal charges over a satirical campaign Facebook page Luthmann made mocking McMahon as “Smilin’ Jack.”
“It’s my First Amendment right to make fun of politicians,” Luthmann insists, noting the charge was falsification of business records – the same dubious felony Manhattan used against Donald Trump, and just as “bulls**t” in his view.
Facing a far more serious federal fraud indictment at the time (which he says was engineered by McMahon), Luthmann says he took a global plea deal in 2020 to resolve “the stupid Facebook case” as an afterthought.
Now free and determined to clear his name, Luthmann contends that the 2020 plea was itself corruptly obtained.
On the podcast, he outlined a byzantine scheme: Staten Island prosecutors added another charge to bolster the fake Facebook charge as a “Supplemental Criminal Information” on a separate docket and had him plead via video conference – a procedure Luthmann later discovered is illegal in New York. More importantly, he says the added charge was never properly processed.
“Where’s the fingerprint card from 2020? You don’t have a f**ing fingerprint card… You didn’t book me correctly,”* Luthmann argued, explaining that without an arrest record or fingerprints, the court never had jurisdiction over that case.
A Void Conviction?
Luthmann says “Mike McMahon’s vanity conviction” is legally void. When the new administrative judge, Raymond Rodriguez, took over, Luthmann suspects the judge immediately realized the oversight.
“[In July, Ray Rodriguez] probably looked at the file and said, ‘you didn’t book Luthmann… get me the fingerprint card,’” Luthmann speculated.
That realization, he claims, triggered a panicked scramble by DA McMahon and Special Prosecutor Eric Nelson to fix their mistake.
“I think they came up with a corrupt plan… to try to arrest me on a new phony bogus charge,” Luthmann said, “and that’s where the fake Substack email thing [came in] on [July] 13th”.
Luthmann alleges the July 13 contempt complaint signed by McMahon – hinging on the mass email – was a pretext to get him back up to New York, where they could quietly cure the old fingerprint issue. In a recorded call, NYPD Detective John Wilkinson (tasked with the warrant) admitted that any warrant McMahon wants “gets rubber-stamped” by Staten Island judges.
Wilkinson, caught on tape, even warned Luthmann’s lawyer that if Luthmann didn’t turn himself in voluntarily, “we’ll send the U.S. Marshals to Florida.”
The detective’s brazenness shocked observers – Frank Parlato’s Frank Report dubbed it “Wilkinson’s incredible confession” and noted it “amounts to a criminal confession” of collusion between police, prosecutors, and judges.
Luthmann described the ploy in blunt terms: “They called up my lawyers [and said], he has to come in just get fingerprinted… an old cop trick,” he said. “They would do two sets of fingerprint cards… one in the old file and then one in the new file” to plug the hole retroactively.
He flatly calls the contempt charge a “fabricated” case. “This is pure bulls**t… concocted to try to get me to Staten Island so they could fingerprint me,” Luthmann railed.
By refusing to take the bait – and rushing his motion to dismiss – he believes he derailed the scheme.
But instead of fighting fair, the powers that be made the entire case disappear.
“God forbid I get to cross-examine these pricks,” Luthmann said of the prospect of airing out the truth in open court.
“Going to the Feds” – and Fearing He’ll Be “Whacked”
With his local avenues exhausted or stonewalled, Luthmann is now making a dramatic declaration: he’s taking his fight to federal authorities.
“Monday morning, I’m gonna [go to] the feds. I’ve had enough of the bulls**t,” he announced emphatically on the podcast.
He plans to present evidence of what he calls color-of-law violations – essentially abuse of power under the guise of legal procedure – in hopes that the FBI or U.S. Attorney will intervene. In Luthmann’s view, the pattern of coordinated judicial and prosecutorial action against him isn’t just a personal vendetta, but a criminal conspiracy.
“It fits the facts… then it’s a RICO case,” he said, referring to the federal racketeering statute commonly used against organized crime. He predicts “a lot of people… are gonna be leaving in bracelets” if the feds dig into Staten Island’s legal underbelly.
Luthmann has even reached out to political allies of President Donald Trump, framing his ordeal as a prime example of “weaponization” of the justice system.
“I’m going to the Trump people, actually,” he revealed, mentioning he’s been in touch with members of a government Weaponization of Justice task force in Washington. He hinted at high-level meetings in the works and says he’ll share everything he has – recordings, documents, transcripts – with federal investigators.
This external pressure may be needed, he argues, since local mechanisms have failed. Observers note that the pattern described – a DA allegedly coordinating with police, judges, and special appointees to silence a critic – “fits a RICO-type scheme” and could trigger oversight from the Justice Department or Congress.
Afraid For His Life
But Luthmann is also quite literally fearing for his life as he takes on Staten Island’s powers. On the podcast, he dropped a startling warning: if something happens to him, it won’t be an accident.
“I’m down in Florida – it’s hard for ’em to whack me down here. If I go to New York, I’m probably gonna end up dead,” he said bluntly. Luthmann claims he’s already gotten word through the grapevine that “these people are gonna whack me.” He’s so alarmed that he publicly avowed he has no intention of harming himself, to preempt any convenient narrative.
“I’m not depressed. I’m not gonna kill myself. So if I end up ‘suicided’… we know what happened,” Luthmann declared pointedly.
Comparing the Staten Island crew to the most infamous of political operators, he added, “I’m afraid… these people are like Bill and Hillary Clinton – they will do anything… I’ll be whacked.”
Such dramatic statements underscore the gravity–or at least the high drama–of Luthmann’s claims. He insists he feels safer broadcasting the threats against him out in the open, believing it’s less likely “they” would move against him if the spotlight is shining.
“That’s another reason I have to go to the feds,” he said, emphasizing that once federal law enforcement is involved, any retaliation would only bolster his case. For now, Luthmann remains a free man in exile, rallying online and in the media to attract attention and awareness for this politically motivated prosecution.
Staten Island’s embattled crusader sums up this jaunt as a battle against a deeply entrenched local legal cartel.
“They’ve hurt me before, and I have the goods on them,” he said, referencing tapes and records he’s amassed.
Indeed, much of his story has already been reported in fragments on blogs, Substacks, and independent outlets.
“It’s all out there… Frank Parlato’s written about this for years, Mike Volpe’s written about this, others have written about this,” Luthmann noted.
Now, with his podcast revelations and bold federal gambit, Luthmann hopes to blow the lid off what he calls “Staten Island’s real crime family.” As he told host Lisa Lee, lawfare is the weapon of choice for his enemies – but two can play that game. If Luthmann has his way, the next court drama will see McMahon and company in the hot seat, answering RICO charges of their own.
“We’ll see… but there’s a lot of stuff here,” he said determinedly. “I promise you, I’m going to have my day – in a real court – and they’re all going to have theirs.”
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UPDATE: On Monday, Luthmann said he contacted federal authorities and disclosed “voluminous materials.” He expects further meetings shortly.
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