Federal agents have arrested and accused a New York woman of threatening to kill a federal judge in Detroit, an FBI agent and a prosecutor involved in the criminal case against Kingdom of God Global Church “apostle” David Taylor.
Makeda Charles, 36, a New York City resident with a history of mental health issues, said she was married to Taylor, referred to a bomb and said people linked to the case ― including U.S. District Judge Terrence Berg ― would be stabbed and killed unless charges were dropped, according to an unsealed criminal complaint obtained by The Detroit News. Charles is described in court filings as a “long-time” follower of the Kingdom of God Global Church and a related religious organization.
The FBI said those threats included emails, voicemails, texts and a fax sent to the chambers of a federal judge referred to in the court filing by the initials T.B.,” an apparent reference to Berg, who is overseeing the criminal case against Taylor and two others. One message last month said there was a “hit” on the judge’s life and that he would be “dead and stabbed and shut down,” an FBI special agent wrote in the criminal case.
Berg, notably, survived being shot by two men during a botched robbery in Detroit in 2015 ― an attack that Charles is accused of referencing in a voicemail message to the judge late last month.
“I can see why you were shot in the past and robbed, and more misfortune come upon you as karma is a bitch,” Charles said, according to the FBI.
Berg declined to comment through a court spokesman. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit also declined to comment.
The case was unsealed amid a rise in violence aimed at political, governmental and public officials in recent years. There have been more than 850 cases filed nationally since 2013, including a record-high 133 last year, according to research by the University of Nebraska Omaha’s National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center and Chapman University.
The number of cases this year is on pace to exceed last year’s record total.
The arrest adds a new wrinkle to a high-profile prosecution involving a church operating in Taylor and several states that prosecutors have portrayed as a cult. The case accuses Taylor of orchestrating a conspiracy that involved forcing workers in suburban Detroit, Florida, Texas and Missouri to solicit money from people in an alleged scheme that raised approximately $50 million since 2014.
That money bankrolled a life of luxury for church leaders, including Taylor, who referred to himself as the “Apostle,” claimed to be Jesus’ best friend and told followers God gave him the “keys to the Kingdom on Earth,” according to the government.
Charles appeared Tuesday in a federal court in New York and was ordered held without bond after she requested to serve as her own lawyer. A federal magistrate judge also ordered Charles, who was being held in the Niagara County jail, transferred to federal court in Detroit to face a charge of issuing a threat in interstate commerce, a felony that carries a maximum five-year prison sentence.
New York woman was previously hospitalized after making threats
The roots of the investigation stretch back to October 2021. That is when an FBI agent was contacted by a concerned citizen who followed the church and its members.
The citizen said Charles had posted threats on social media while at an airport in Louisville, Kentucky.
“Charles contacted the concerned citizen and claimed that no one should go near her because she will blow herself up (presumably with an explosive device) and kill others along with herself,” an FBI agent wrote in the unsealed case. “As a result, Charles was hospitalized and received approximately 12-18 months of mental health treatment.”
After being released, Charles contacted the FBI agent approximately 100 times via text, email and phone calls and demanded the federal agent stop investigating the church, according to the government.
In January 2025, Charles sent the agent another text, according to the criminal case. The text included a message and a picture of Charles wearing a medical mask and holding a rifle.
“I have the right to defend my civil rights against the s— you did to me,” the message read. “You’ll get one bullet and be shot dead if you try that s— again and General David E. Taylor can choke you to death or pistol beat you to death. You f—— with the wrong ones.”
Days later, the FBI alleged Charles sent the agent an email. The subject line: “Keep it up and get shot,” according to the criminal filing.
In April 2025, Charles arrived at the church in Taylor. Police were called after she refused to leave the property, according to the court filing.
Charles said she was a member of the church staff, but a leader of the church said they did not know her and said Charles had been sending parishioners threatening messages.
“This member of (church) leadership told police that he had not seen Charles before, does not know how she got to the church, or where she lives,” the FBI agent wrote.
Four months later, in August 2025, prosecutors unsealed the forced labor case against Taylor and two church executives. A trial is set for this fall.
NY woman demands judge release church leader from jail
Last month, Charles sent a fax to the judge demanding Taylor’s release from jail, according to the FBI.
On April 20, the FBI said Charles sent an email to the judge and prosecutor: “No wonder there is a hit on your life from God divine author of you (sic) final and last breath of torments forever dead and stabbed and shut down,” the email read. “Don’t say I never warned yuh….”
That message was followed by one from Charles telling the judge and prosecutor to arrest and send her to Taylor’s cell at the federal detention center in Milan “or a couples (sic) psych ward which is perfect,” according to the complaint.
“Don’t f— with His excellency General David E. Taylor and God’s money, your life will be robbed and you and (all) your bloody family be together in hell forever,” Charles wrote in an email to the judge and prosecutor. “God bless you with tormentors forever and your teeth hurt unendingly and you cry forever. No one loves you.”
In the message, Charles referred to herself as “a bomb on Wall Street,” the FBI alleged.
“The threat of a bomb here is consistent with Charles’s 2021 threat that she would use a bomb to kill herself and others,” the FBI agent wrote.
rsnell@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Kingdom of God follower threatened to kill judge, others, feds say
Reporting by Robert Snell, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
