As part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors, Luke Wenke pleaded guilty to cyberstalking on April 18th, 2022. The following transcript contains a word-for-word account of what was said during the plea hearing, which was held at the Robert H. Jackson U.S. Courthouse in Buffalo, New York.
Prosecution: Victim Was So Fearful of Luke Wenke, He Sent His Family to Live Elsewhere
Luke Wenke was charged with cyberstalking for harassing a criminal defence attorney in Minnesota (referred to on this website and in court documents as “Victim 1”). Victim 1 represented a criminal defendant who Wenke was (and maybe still is) romantically obsessed with, typically referred to as “Ryan” or “Benjamin.”
Wenke was unsatisfied with Victim 1’s representation of Ryan and began contacting him directly about the case in 2020. Victim 1 repeatedly asked Luke Wenke to stop contacting him, but Wenke continued to send unwanted correspondence, including text messages, dozens of emails, and actual letters (including one featuring an aerial image of Victim 1’s house).
In 2021, Luke Wenke drove from Olean, New York to Minneapolis and showed up at Victim 1’s workplace. He was sent away by security but continued to contact Victim 1 in the months following the incident. His communications became increasingly hostile and threatening over time, causing Victim 1 to fear for the safety of himself, his family, and others.
Some of Luke Wenke’s emails and other correspondence referenced his possession of firearms and familiarity with explosives. Prosecutors would later procure evidence that he had taken steps to obtain a working firearm, including by buying parts at a gun supply dealer in Buffalo, where he reportedly told staff that he was “building an AR.”
According to the transcript below, the harassment escalated to the point where several of Victim 1’s employees considered quitting their jobs. In the meantime, Victim 1 sent his family to live at a separate residence away from their home.
The FBI warned Luke Wenke to leave Victim 1 alone and told him he was scaring people, but he continued, leading to his arrest in late January of 2022.
Luke Wenke Admits to His Crime
Luke Wenke’s sentencing hearing was presided over by the Honorable John L. Sinatra, Jr., who spent considerable time explaining Luke Wenke’s rights and what would happen if he pleaded guilty. Sinatra explained that Wenke had the right to plead not guilty and take his case to trial. But by taking the plea deal, he would be accepting a felony conviction on his record and giving up certain rights, including the right to appeal his case.
Sinatra confirmed that Luke Wenke was literate, had discussed the terms of the plea deal with his public defender, and that he was satisfied with his attorney’s representation. Additionally, the judge noted that Wenke was coherent and did not appear to be impaired by drugs or alcohol.
Wenke repeatedly confirmed that he understood the plea deal, that it was his choice to plead guilty, and that he knew he’d lose certain rights by pleading guilty. He also said that no one had coerced, threatened, or intimidated him into pleading guilty, and that no one had offered him any sort of incentives or rewards for doing so.
When asked specifically what he was admitting to, Wenke told the judge:
“I very inappropriately treated [Victim 1] and dehumanized him and carried on for way too long. And definitely harassed him over e-mails for longer than ever should have happened.”
Despite His Admission, Luke Wenke Now Claims He Was Forced to Plead Guilty
After being convicted of cyberstalking and serving federal prison time, Luke Wenke has landed back in the courtroom repeatedly for violating probation by contacting his victims. Over the last three years, he has deluged the court with dozens of handwritten letters, including one from May of this year claiming that he was forced to plead guilty at gunpoint.
As the transcript below shows, this was not the case. Luke Wenke pleaded guilty of his own volition and clarified multiple times that he was doing so during the hearing. The judge adjudicated him guilty of the cyberstalking charge, dismissed a charge of making interstate threats, and scheduled Wenke’s sentencing hearing for August 18th, 2022.
Luke Wenke: Plea Hearing Transcript
April 18th, 2022
USA v. Luke Wenke – Plea Hearing Transcript – April 2022
Categories: Court documents: transcripts; threats: escalation, false reviews, job loss, threats of physical harm
Tags: Buffalo, NY; Cattaraugus County, conditions of supervision, cyberstalking, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Rudroff, email, FBI, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Olean, NY; out-of-state victims, plea agreement, unwanted contact, Victim 1