Hempfield man charged with leaving obscene messages for members of Congress

A Hempfield man who previously served jail time for harassing Black members of a Penn Township church was charged Thursday with leaving 214 obscene and racially-charged voicemails for 35 members of Congress, according to court papers.

Mark Eugene Ray, 62, is charged with ethnic intimidation and two counts of harassment in a complaint filed by Westmoreland County detectives.

Local authorities were contacted by the U.S. Capitol Police Protective Services Bureau on Aug. 15 for assistance in the case. Detectives said they were provided the phone number of a person who had called the U.S. Capitol switchboard 1,400 times since January 2020, according to court papers.

The caller requested to be connected to the offices of specific members of Congress and left voicemails for them containing racial, anti-Semitic, obscene and vulgar language, authorities said. In some of the messages, the caller identified himself as Mark Ray from “Reality Land, Pa.”

County detectives learned the phone number was connected to Ray and interviewed him Tuesday. Ray told investigators that he has contacted Black and Jewish members of Congress, leaving messages that “contain veiled threats and harassing speech,” according to court papers. He is white.

“The defendant further advised that he (is a) regular viewer of conservative news outlets and gets agitated by the current state of the nation,” authorities wrote in the complaint. “The defendant stated that he follows televised instructions to contact the members of Congress.”

The charges were sent by summons. Ray could not be reached. A voicemail recording on the phone number authorities said belonged to him claimed to be “the Pennsylvania Pentecostal preacher.” He did not have an attorney listed in online court records. A preliminary hearing is set for Oct. 20.

Ray was sentenced in August 2019 to up to 12 months in jail on harassment charges stemming from two incidents. He was released after serving two months.

Ray first was arrested in 2017 and was ordered to stop contacting the Living Word Congregational Church in Penn Township after police said he left threatening messages and directed racial slurs at members of the congregation and its pastor. In the second case, filed in May 2019, authorities said Ray — while awaiting trial for the first set of charges — left four voicemails directed at the church’s pastor.

His attorney at the time said the calls were prompted by a religious dispute and not racially motivated.