Former Hospital Official Charged for Threatening Tampa General CEO John Couris
A 63-year-old former hospital executive, Lawrence Brunn, has been arrested and charged with cyber harassment after making violent threats against Tampa General Hospital CEO John Couris. The U.S. Department of Justice alleges Brunn posted messages online calling for Couris’s beheading and mailed threatening content to his neighbors and hospital board members.
Brunn, from Oakmont, Pennsylvania, previously worked under Couris at Jupiter Medical Center in Florida, where he was employed as a budget manager and later interim controller. He was fired in 2014 after falsely accusing the center’s CFO of embezzling $6 million using a self-devised, flawed auditing method he called “Forever Cash to Net AR.”
Court documents say Jupiter Medical Center filed a defamation lawsuit against Brunn that was resolved in the center’s favor in 2020. Following the legal resolution, Brunn began directing his anger at Couris, who had since become CEO at Tampa General.
According to FBI investigators, Brunn made multiple graphic and threatening online posts referring to executions using a guillotine. One post on April 17 read, “You all need to have your heads taken off… It’s called a guillotine.” Another message on May 19 mentioned “a bucket for heads, a bigger bucket for bodies.”
Brunn also allegedly operated a website, icanfundtheusa.com, where more threatening messages were published. Though the site contained minimal content, the FBI says the language and targets were consistent with Brunn’s threats.
The threats escalated to physical mailings sent to Couris’s neighborhood and members of the Tampa General Board of Trustees. As a result, Couris hired private security and has limited his public movements for safety.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office confirmed the charges of cyber harassment. If convicted, Brunn could face up to five years in federal prison.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Candace Garcia Rich is prosecuting the case. Tampa General Hospital expressed gratitude for law enforcement’s swift action and reaffirmed its cooperation with the ongoing investigation.
