A federal grand jury has indicted a man after he crashed a motor vehicle twice into the side of a building that contains the offices of both the Internal Revenue Service and the Small Business Administration.
Ernest Milton Barnett, 49, of Birmingham, Ala., was charged in a two-count indictment with assaulting a federal employee with a deadly weapon and damaging government property. One count of the indictment accuses him of assaulting and intimidating federal employees by ramming his vehicle into the IRS and SBA building in Birmingham, while the other count cites damage to the building and its contents.
If convicted of the first count, Barnett faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Conviction on the second count could add another decade in prison and an additional $250,000 fine to his sentence.
The case was investigated by agents of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration's Office of Investigations and will be prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney William G. Simpson.
