NORWICH – Four people charged with a variety of felony and misdemeanor crimes entered pleas in county court Friday, including a not guilty plea entered on the behalf of a Chenango County Correctional Facility inmate accused of making death threats against Judge W. Howard Sullivan.

Michael D. Richardson, 35, formerly of Bainbridge, has been charged with making a terroristic threat, a class D felony, and was remanded to the Chenango County Correctional Facility with no bail. It’s alleged that Richardson – in July of this year and with the intent to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; influence the policy of a unit of government by intimidation or coercion; or affect the conduct of a unit of government by murder, assassination or kidnapping – placed threatening remarks in letters addressed to his estranged wife and mother-in-law stating he was going to shoot Judge Sullivan, who is scheduled to retire at the end of this year.

Richardson’s grand jury indictment was unsealed during court on Friday, and a not guilty plea was entered on his behalf by the court pending the assignment of an attorney to represent him. He will re-appear in county court on Thursday.

This isn’t Richardson’s first run-in with Chenango County law enforcement. In January of 2010, he was indicted on charges of second degree assault, also a D felony, and third degree assault, a class A misdemeanor. According to the Chenango County District Attorney’s Office, Richardson allegedly struck his wife multiple times in the face, fracturing her right eye socket during a domestic dispute in the Town of Bainbridge. In June of 2010, Richardson pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault, sentenced to one year in the Chenango County Correctional Facility.

In an unrelated incident that took place in August of 2011, Richardson was charged with endangering the welfare of a child, a class A misdemeanor, following an alleged incident on Kirby Street in the Village of Bainbridge.

Three other individuals entered pleas in county court on Friday: