Facebook feud leads to felony charge

Man threatens to kill Midwest City Councilman following vulgar exchange

By Jeff Harrison
Midwest City Beacon

An Edmond man faces a felony charge after threatening to kill a Midwest City councilman on Facebook.

Midwest City police say Lynn Sludderick, also known as Ricky Sluder, made violent threats against Sean Reed following a graphic exchange between the two men on the social media site on April 23.

Sludderick has been charged with violation of the Oklahoma Computer Crimes Act, a felony.

According to the arrest affidavit, Sludderick and Reed got into a vulgar exchange on Facebook on April 23. Reed commented about Sludderick’s mother and Sludderick responded about Reed’s children.

Sludderick allegedly continued to make posts outside of the original thread. Police said some of the posts escalated from derogatory comments to threats against Reed.

In some of the comments, Sludderick threatened to kill Reed and posted a link to his business and photo of Reed and his wife. In one comment, Sludderick allegedly threatened to “put a bullet in his head” and issued a “death warrant,” according to the report.

At that point, Reed stopped responding and Sludderick continued to post, the report states.

Police say Sludderick continued to make threatening posts about Reed while driving to a sports complex and business that are not related to Reed, as well as Lake Stanley Draper. The man also posted a link to a violent scene from the movie Inglorious Bastards.

On April 24, police spoke with Reed about the incident. Reed agreed to press charges against Sludderick because he “brought Reed’s family into it.”

Officers later tried to make contact with Sludderick but were unable to reach him by phone or at his home in Edmond. On April 28, Sludderick returned a call to investigators to “explain his side of the story.” Sludderick claims he does not know Reed but only that he is a business owner in Midwest City.

Sludderick told police that Reed and another person were discussing a topic and he commented in disagreement with Reed. He said Reed immediately started attacking him. Sludderick said he became upset when Reed attacked his mother. He told police that he has no intent to harm Reed or look for him. He said the “bullet to the head” comment was a “statement or figure of speech” and was not a threat, and said he did not post about a “death warrant.”

Sludderick initially said he wished to pursue charges against Reed for the obscene comments but then recanted saying there was no reason to go through the “court process” over the incident.

Oklahoma County prosecutors filed charges against Sludderick on May 20.  He made his initial appearance on Sept. 21 and was released on $5,000 bond. A preliminary hearing conference was rescheduled for Dec. 9.