Long Island man accused of attacking three federal court officers in elevator melee

A Long Island man stormed into a federal courthouse demanding to see a judge, then attacked three court officers in a wild elevator melee on Thursday, federal prosecutors allege.

Robert Wilson — who last year filed a civil lawsuit against then-Gov. Cuomo and other public and law enforcement officials over a home improvement license dispute — is accused of assaulting the officers after asking directions to a judge’s “office,” according to court records and law enforcement sources.

Wilson, 63, of Calverton, L.I., showed up at federal court in Central Islip Wednesday morning to file paperwork for a case he’d filed on his own behalf — telling clerk office workers if “the judge” did not “follow the rules,” he’d return with “armed troops” to “arrest the judge for treason,” according to a federal criminal complaint.

Federal court officers had been warned to look out for Wilson as he has made similar statements in person and in letters since May, the complaint alleges.

Wilson returned the following day, passed through the metal detectors at the entrance checkpoint and asked where the district judge’s “office” was, according to the complaint.

When court officers told him he couldn’t see the judge, he headed into the courthouse and took an elevator to the fourth floor, with one officer following to keep an eye on him, the complaint alleges. He stayed for a short time, then went back on the elevator, grabbing the court officer by the back of the neck, forcing him to the floor and punching him in the ribs, the complaint alleges.

The officer made a distress call on his radio, and two other court security officers rushed to his aid when the doors opened on the seventh floor, according to the complaint.

After a struggle, the officers subdued Wilson; all three officers were hospitalized. Their injuries were not described in the complaint.

The judge assigned to Wilson’s civil case is District Judge Gary Brown, and in an Aug. 8 letter, Wilson described him and several other jurists as “phony judges,” demanding “they must all be removed and charged with Treason.”

“By the Constitution of the United States every Judge list(ed) above are holding their office illegally and are committing Treason by doing so,” he wrote. Wilson also included “revised” copies of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution in his letter.

Magistrate Judge Arlene Lindsay ordered Wilson held without bail Thursday.

Wilson’s lawyer did not immediately return messages seeking comment.