A Pennsylvania man has been arrested and charged with making online death threats — including beheading — against Tampa General Hospital CEO John Couris.
Lawrence Brunn, 63, who previously worked with Couris at Jupiter Medical Center, is also accused of sending disturbing messages to the executive’s Tampa neighbors and TGH board members, federal authorities announced Wednesday.
“This is an ongoing investigation,” a spokesperson for Tampa General said in a statement. “We have full faith in the U.S. Attorney General’s office, and we will continue to cooperate. We want to thank local and federal law enforcement authorities for their intervention.”
Brunn, of the Pittsburgh suburb Oakmont, began targeting Couris as early as 2023, according to a criminal complaint.
Authorities said the harassment grew increasingly aggressive over time. This past April, in a social media post cited in court documents, Brunn wrote that Couris “should have his head chopped off.”
When Couris was president and CEO of Jupiter Medical Center, Brunn worked there as a budget manager and then as interim controller, according to investigators and Palm Beach County court records.
Brunn was fired in 2014 after he falsely accused the hospital’s chief financial officer of embezzling $6 million, court records show. The hospital eventually filed a defamation lawsuit against Brunn in 2014, the records show.
According to the complaint, the lawsuit was closed in 2020 with a finding in the medical center’s favor and Brunn soon began threatening Couris, who took the Tampa post in 2017.
“You need to donate your heads, OK?” Brunn posted April 17, according to the complaint. “It’s called a guillotine, OK? You should be scared, not of me, but of we the people.”
Beyond the online threats, Brunn is accused of mailing harassing materials to Couris’ private residence, to homes in his Tampa neighborhood, and to members of Tampa General’s Board of Trustees.
Couris hired security to monitor his home and commute to work, the complaint said.
Brunn faces up to five years in federal prison if convicted.
Information from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review was used in this report.
