Judicial Security
Plot to kill Indiana judge thickens: Prosecutors allege pending domestic violence case as motive
Tippecanoe County Superior Court Judge Steven P. Meyer was shot in the arm Sunday afternoon inside his Lafayette, Indiana, home. (Photo from the Tippecanoe County, Indiana, website)
Police arrested five people linked to a motorcycle club with street gang affiliation in a conspiracy to kill an Indiana judge, centered around an upcoming domestic violence case, according to prosecutors.
On Jan. 18, Tippencanoe County Superior Court Judge Steven Meyer and his wife, Kimberly, were injured during a shooting inside their home in Lafayette, Indiana. Judge Meyer was scheduled to hear a domestic abuse case involving Thomas Gregory Moss, 43, who was charged in the 2024 beating of his ex-girlfriend and firing a gun inside her home, according to coverage by The Associated Press. Court documents show Moss had connections to the Phantom MC Detroit-based motorcycle club and the Vice Lords street gang.
The scheme to shoot the judge involved the purchase of a shotgun and a fake food delivery to the Meyer home. Investigators found surveillance video of Moss associate Raylen Ferguson, 38, also arrested on Thursday, according to the Lafayette Police Department. FBI, U.S. marshals and police from Indiana, Pennsylvania and Kentucky worked the case, and DNA from a discarded mask and clothing was matched to Ferguson.
Both Moss and Ferguson face attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, battery and other charges.
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