Henry Goodloe,78 of Pine Bluff, who stated he chopped cotton and then moved to Stuttgart to work in the rice fields, was sentenced to a year of probation after mailing white powder and a threatening letter about slavery reparations to Republican Sen. Tom Cotton’s office in Washington two years ago.
In August of 2019, Henry Goodloe, then 77, pleaded guilty in federal court.
On November 7, 2018, a federal grand jury indicted Goodloe for mailing a threat to injure the addressee, and for conveying false information related to possessing biological weapons which are punishable by not more than
five years’ imprisonment.
In August 2018, Goodloe mailed a letter to Senator Cotton’s Washington, D.C., office. The letter’s return address was Goodloe’s home address. The letter, which contained the statement “maybe this will get your attention,” contained a white powdery substance. A Senate mail facility
intercepted the letter, and a hazardous material response team later determined that the substance was unbleached flour and starch.
According to court documents, Goodloe is very passionate that African American’s are due reparations for slavery and the attendant fall out and economic destruction he submits resulted from it.
He reached out to Senator Stephen Cohen about his concerns to which he replied he did not anticipate reparations would come to fruition during his lifetime.
He also sent emails to Senator Tom Cotton, that went unanswered. That’s when Goodloe decided to mail an envelope containing flour.
During Tuesday’s, Jan. 14 sentencing, U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker instructed Goodloe to have “no communication or other interaction” with Cotton without receiving permission from the U.S. Probation Office.
She told Goodloe that while “it’s reasonable to expect a response from your elected officials,” his method of complaining “is a crime.”
Goodloe, who had no prior criminal violations, was sentenced to one-year probation and a $100 mandatory special assessment.
Court documents state that Goodloe agreed that what he did was not a good idea and that his thinking at the time that he mailed it was different than his thinking now.
