A New Jersey man has pleaded guilty to threatening to detonate more than 100 homemade explosive devices on the steps of a Catholic cathedral during the annual Red Mass attended by U.S. Supreme Court justices and senior government officials, federal prosecutors said.
According to a March 5 press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, Louis Geri, 41, of Vineland, New Jersey, pleaded guilty to extortion involving threats of force and to possessing an unregistered destructive device.
Prosecutors said the incident occurred Oct. 4, 2025, when Geri rode a motorcycle to St. Matthew's Cathedral in Washington and set up a tent on the church’s front steps.
Inside the tent, he assembled more than 100 explosive devices made from materials he had purchased in Arkansas and assembled in Virginia, according to the release.
The cathedral was scheduled to host the annual Red Mass the following morning, a high-profile service traditionally attended by members of the Supreme Court, Cabinet officials, members of Congress, and members of the diplomatic corps.
According to prosecutors, Geri refused to leave the tent when officers asked him to move and threatened to throw one of the devices into the street “to demonstrate its destructive power.” He told officers that “several of your people are gonna die from one of these” if federal agents did not come to negotiate his demands.
Authorities later recovered a nine-page list of demands that included requests for hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments, extended accommodations at the Mayflower Hotel, an expatriation flight to Japan, and a demand that the Supreme Court remove Arizona from the United States and declare it a “foreign enemy.”
The document also included demands directed at leaders of the Catholic and Jewish faiths, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Police established a barricade around the tent and arrested Geri when he briefly stepped outside. Officers found one explosive device in his pocket along with a butane lighter, prosecutors said.
After his arrest, prosecutors said Geri waived his Miranda rights and described the devices as “grenades” and “rockets,” admitting he intended to use the threat of force to force negotiations.
“Threatening to detonate devices on the steps of a Catholic church—or any religious institution—is a violation not only of our way of life, but of the First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion,” U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro said in the release. “Terrorizing people of faith will result in serious consequences and significant prison time.”
Sentencing for Geri is scheduled for July 27, 2026. Prosecutors said the court will formally accept Geri’s plea at sentencing, according to the release.