Pennsylvania resident placed into pre-trial program for alleged threats against Donald Trump
A Centre County resident was accepted Wednesday into a pretrial intervention program after being charged in October for threatening violence against President Donald Trump the day before his rally at Penn State.
Paul J. Gavenonis, 74, of Spring Township, was placed under supervision for one year by Centre County Judge Katie Oliver. Gavenonis, who uses she/her pronouns, must also continue counseling treatment.
The Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program is meant for nonviolent offenders who have limited or no prior criminal record. People who complete the program successfully may later seek to have their charges dismissed, while those who don’t may be prosecuted. Those placed into the program make no admission of guilt.
While purchasing a parking pass at the university’s transportation office, Gavenonis described climbing to the top of a tall building and said “you can’t take a gun in or the students will see it,” Penn State police wrote in an affidavit of probable cause.
The registered Democrat then made a “racking gun motion” with her hands, a detective wrote in the charging document.
“I hate Donald Trump,” Gavenonis was quoted by police as saying. “I’d like to shoot that guy.”
The transportation office staffer who processed the parking pass purchase expressed alarm and concern at the statement and called the police. Gavenonis was later interviewed by university police and the Secret Service inside the Pattee Library.
After being asked if she made a comment about wishing Trump would be shot or if she could do it, police wrote that Gavenonis said “probably, yeah.”
“Frankly, I hope somebody would get him,” police quoted Gavenonis as saying after they arrested her. She also told investigators she had a rifle inside her residence.
A Penn State spokesperson told the Centre Daily Times in October that the university was unsure of Gavenonis’ intent to purchase a parking pass for Trump’s rally at the Bryce Jordan Center specifically. Parking passes were only offered online or the day of the rally for entering the adjacent parking lots.
Gavenonis was charged with misdemeanor counts of terroristic threats and disorderly conduct. She was incarcerated for five days at the Centre County Correctional Facility.
This story was originally published January 29, 2025 at 2:58 PM.