Local News in Brief : Man Sentenced for Threatening Judge

An aspiring screenwriter was sentenced to three years probation Tuesday and ordered to undergo psychiatric counseling for writing a threatening letter to a Norwalk judge who had ruled against him in a lawsuit.

Superior Court Judge Kathleen O’Leary imposed the sentence on James E. Hetherington, who pleaded no contest in August to one felony count of threatening Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs.

Hetherington, 38, of Los Angeles, wrote Janavs that she had made “a tactical error . . . that could have cost you your life” after the judge ruled in favor of a talent agency that had been sued by Hetherington, who claimed that he wrote a script that was made into the movie “Beverly Hills Cop II.”