A man is facing federal charges after allegedly threatening to disrupt phone and computer service to several first responder and medical service agencies.

According to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister’s office, 34-year-old Michael D. Golightley of Larned is charged with seven counts of damaging a protected computer and one count of threatening to damage a protected computer. The crimes are alleged to have occurred in March 2017 in Ellis County.

The indictment alleges Golightley hired an entity known as DDosCity to carry out a series of denial-of-service attacks against computers served by an internet service provider called Nex-Tec. Nex-Tec provided backup and monitoring Service for Ellis County’s Emergency Medical Service administrative voice lines, Russell County’s hospital voice lines, the Quinter hospital’s voice lines, the Grove County Sheriff’s administrative voice lines, the Russell County Sheriff’s administrative voice lines and the administrative voice lines for the police and fire departments of Russell County.

The indictment alleges Golightley sent an e-mail to Nex-Tec stating: “Take down my ad again when my description doesn’t violate copyright (and) I will violate this site by bringing it offline.”

If convicted, he faces up to five years and a fine up to $250,000 on each of the counts.