Police: Meth Suspect Threatened Chief

GIRARD, Pa.—An Ohio man awaiting trial on charges he conspired to make methamphetamines has been charged with threatening the northwestern Pennsylvania police chief who arrested him.

Thirty-nine-year-old Gary Ratliff, of Conneaut, Ohio, has been jailed in the Erie County Prison awaiting a preliminary hearing Nov. 10 on a terroristic threat charge.

County detectives say Ratliff threatened Girard police Chief Nicholas VanDamia in July when the chief interrogated Ratliff about the methamphetamine trade in July. Ratliff allegedly told the chief he would harm the chief and his family once he was free from prison and then called someone else and repeated the threat while in the county jail in July.

Ratliff’s public defender declined comment when reached Tuesday.

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