The Luke Wenke Files

During the summer of 2023, Luke Wenke was found guilty of violating the terms of his federal supervised release by contacting his cyberstalking victim’s business partner. More specifically, the judge determined that Wenke was responsible for a “vitriolic” email that had been sent to the victim’s colleague, thereby constituting a violation via indirect contact with the victim.

A Hit List, Planned Drive-By Shooting, & AR-Platform Rifle

In the sentencing memorandum below, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Rudroff urged the court to send Luke Wenke back to federal prison for a year, noting that Wenke had committed the violation just weeks after his release from his first stint behind bars. The prosecution also noted that Wenke had stated during his original sentencing hearing that he understood his behavior could only be a “one-time thing,” only to turn around and almost immediately resort to the type of conduct that had landed him in prison in the first place.

Rudroff acknowledged that Wenke seemed to need mental help, but emphasized the importance of imposing additional prison time while mentioning that Wenke’s behavior reads “like a prelude to a violent crime.” Additionally, the memorandum notes several disturbing pieces of evidence that were seized during a federal raid on Luke Wenke’s home at the time of his original cyberstalking arrest in 2022, including a document titled “Hit List,” a to-do list consisting of a drive-by shooting, and an AR-platform rifle.

Prosecution Urges for an ABOVE-Guideline Sentence

In what Rudroff described as a career first for a probation violation case, he urged the court to impose a punishment that exceeded the recommended term under typical sentencing guidelines. To support his argument that prison time was necessary to deter Wenke from committing similar conduct in the future, he submitted five exhibits, which are included along with the memorandum in the PDF viewer below.

The first exhibit, “Exhibit A” (Doc. 59-1), includes screenshots of numerous allegedly incriminating social media posts that Luke Wenke had made.

The second exhibit, “Exhibit B” (Doc. 59-2), consists of the email that Luke Wenke was accused of sending to his cyberstalking victim’s colleague in violation of a court-imposed contact ban. Titled “George Floyd is dead and that’s a good thing” and peppered with derogatory epithets, the profanity-laden tirade blames Wenke’s victim and the victim’s business partner for Wenke’s felony cyberstalking conviction while demanding a cleared record. Additionally, he email’s author refers to himself as an “incel” numerous times throughout the correspondence while indicating that he planned to continue his harassing behavior until the situation was resolved to his liking.

Exhibits C and D (Docs. 59-3 and 59-4) consist of additional social media posts, while the fifth exhibit (“Exhibit E”; Doc. 59-5) features a handwritten letter that Luke Wenke was accused of sending to a different victim from the Chautauqua County Jail in violation of a state-issued order of protection. In addition to being banned from contacting the victim by the victim’s state of residency, Wenke was required to abide by all state-issued protective orders as a condition of his federal probation. He was already being detained for similar conduct when he allegedly sent the letter, which appears to be a “warning” to the victim about me and my supposedly conniving ways.

Luke Wenke’s Sentence: TIME SERVED

Despite U.S. Attorney Rudroff’s insistence that Luke Wenke needed to return to prison, the judge overseeing the case sentenced Wenke to time served and extended his supervised release period. Under the terms of his “punishment” (if you even want to call it that), Wenke was ordered to undergo anger management classes, a mental health evaluation (and any recommended treatment), and a substance abuse evaluation (and any recommended treatment).

USA v. Luke Wenke – Sentencing Memorandum
July 28^th, 2023

CASE #1:22-cr-00035, DOC. #59