Weeks before he was scheduled to go on trial for allegedly assaulting a reporter, Patrick Egan was arrested for sending threatening messages to a potential witness in the case.
Egan, 40, is accused of following a reporter and later attacking him in the parking lot of the television station where the reporter worked in 2024. According to police reports at the time, Egan is said to have questioned the reporter’s nationality and yelled “This is Trump’s America now” after demanding proof of citizenship.
The victim is from Detroit and of Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander descent.
Egan was booked into Mesa County jail Tuesday night on charges of violating a protection order. According to an arrest affidavit, Egan reached out to a potential witness in the case and sent him a threatening message.
“I guess your oath to your job is more important than the oath you took to the US Constitution,” part of the message read. The message was punctuated with “Semper Fi” and the hang loose hand emoji, which is sometimes seen as a request for the recipient to call the sender because the hand gesture also suggests a telephone. Semper Fi is the motto for the United States Marine Corps, in which Egan served.
Investigators were alerted to the message by the witness and traced the message back to Egan as it used a CSU Global email account with his name.
The message violates terms of a protection order that was issued, “namely to not harass, molest, intimidate, retaliate against, or tamper with any witness of the acts the Defendant is charged with committing,” the affidavit noted.
Egan was set to go on trial Jan. 5 for the assault. Attorneys for Egan have previously said it is the result of mental health issues and that Egan struggled after his service in the Marines.
