Bayport man pleads guilty in Cuomo harassment case

The Bayport man charged with threatening state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo last year will be treated for mental health problems after pleading guilty to terror and harassment charges, the Suffolk district attorney's office said Friday.

Jack Geoghan, 45, will enter the county's Mental Health Court program on Thursday to begin as many as 18 months of rehabilitation, said Robert Clifford, a spokesman for District Attorney Thomas Spota. Clifford declined further comment.

After Geoghan completes the program, he will be sentenced to 3 years' probation "with alcohol, narcotic and psychiatric conditions and monitoring," the district attorney's office said Friday in a statement.

Geoghan will be sentenced to serve a year in Suffolk County jail if he does not complete the program, the district attorney's statement said.

"I think it is a very good outcome for Mr. Geoghan," his attorney, Bryan Cameron of Sayville, said Friday. "It will allow him to get on with his life. He'll be receiving treatment that will be beneficial to Mr. Geoghan, and the court agrees."

Geoghan, who is involved in a real estate appraisal business, called Cuomo's Hauppauge office several times in December and said he would "unleash the wrath of God" on Cuomo, prosecutors said at the time.

Geoghan also threatened to kill Cuomo on the Long Island Expressway. "I am going to track him down and shoot him," he told an employee in the attorney general's Hauppauge office, prosecutors said.

After Geoghan's arrest, Cameron said Geoghan had called Cuomo's office to complain about proposed legislation related to the real estate industry.

Geoghan pleaded guilty Thursday before Judge Paul Hensley to charges of making a terroristic threat, a felony, and aggravated harassment, a misdemeanor.Orders of protection were issued by Hensley for Cuomo and members of his family.

The felony plea will be thrown out if Geoghan successfully completes the mental health program, Cameron said Friday.

The purpose of Mental Health Court is "to address the treatment needs of persons with mental illness who enter the criminal justice system by diverting them into supervised, community-based treatment services," according to a statement on the state court Web site.

Participants must plead guilty and agree to a written contract detailing the program's requirements, the statement says.