Center Line man who threatened Whitmer, DTE gets 10 months in prison -

Feb. 13, 2026, 7:33 p.m. ET

Federal prosecutors said Steven Conway previously threatened judge, police in Macomb County.
Attorneys for both sides said Conway has had serious mental health conditions for many years.
Conway’s attorney asked for time served and supervised release, including that Conway participate in mental health treatment.

A Center Line man was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison after he was accused of posting online threats to assassinate Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and made calls threatening shareholders of DTE Energy, federal prosecutors said.

Steven Conway, 40, pleaded guilty in October to two counts of interstate communications – threats in U.S. District Court in Detroit. He is to undergo a mental health evaluation and also was sentenced Thursday, Feb. 12, to two years of supervised release once he is released from prison, according the U.S. Attorney’s Office and court records.

Prosecutors said Conway contacted a DTE Energy call center in Milwaukee on Jan. 23, 2025, saying shareholders would be “targeted for assassination.” He called back the same day, saying the company would be “hunted down” and members assassinated, according to the prosecutors’ sentencing memorandum, which asked for a sentence of 10-16 months in prison.

It said Conway also called the FBI about seven times from 2022-2024 regarding grievances against Whitmer. On Jan. 27, 2025, he posted on GROWLR, an app based in Ohio, under the username Meatball, saying Whitmer was marked for assassination, according to the sentencing memorandum.

It said Conway admitted to calling DTE, upset after reading about pollution the company allegedly created in Michigan, and that he made statements about Whitmer in the past, but didn’t recall the specific threat he made.

“He generally admitted to that he ‘acts like a psychopath’ and is a ‘loud mouth.’ He also speculated that the agents were speaking with him because of a post where he said he wanted to blow up the world because he hated it so much,” prosecutors wrote in their memorandum.

Prosecutors said Conway was convicted of making harassing calls in October 2024, calling the 37th District Court in Warren and telling a clerk that if he had to come up there, he would kill a judge. He pleaded guilty to making the threat, they said.

Conway also was accused of calling Roseville police, telling them he was going to shoot them, in a case that prosecutors said did not result in a conviction. When an officer called him back, they wrote, Conway identified himself and said he uses threats to get what he wants and that he was frustrated he wasn’t able to get through to Whitmer.

Prosecutors wrote that Conway suffers from serious mental health conditions and a traumatic upbringing, but “appears to have done little to meaningly manage these conditions, despite having been diagnosed at a young age and received considerable services.”

They said that despite contacts with law enforcement and mental health treatment, Conway continued to engage in threatening behavior, including troubling behavior while he was on pretrial release in a livestream video.

Messages were left for Conway’s attorney, Daniel Dena, who could not be immediately reached for comment on Friday, Feb. 13.

In his sentencing memorandum, Dena said the case “is about words that were frightening, unacceptable, and taken seriously by everyone who heard them. But it is also about a man whose mental illness turned fear, paranoia, and instability into reckless speech, not calculated violence. The law rightly condemns the threat. Justice, however, must respond more humanely to the person who made it.”

Dena asked for a sentence of time served and supervised release, including conditions that Conway participate in and successfully complete recommended mental health treatment.

Dena said Conway was diagnosed with major depression and treated with counseling and medication as a teenager. He bounced around between mental health facilities, including Hawthorn Center, where an unannounced active intruder drill occurred before Christmas 2022.

Conway also was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder and personality disorder, Dena wrote, bounced around adult group homes and is a cancer survivor. He said Conway’s adult life “reflects someone trying to function while carrying severe, largely untreated psychiatric symptoms.”

Dena wrote that Conway called DTE after learning of reports that the company was alleged to have contaminated water supplies of Detroit residents with harmful pollutants and was expressing anger and frustration about the allegations. Conway’s statement on the dating app GROWLR, Dena wrote, was in response to learning about a corruption scandal.

“Conway’s talk is a symptom of mental health struggles and reflects no serious intent to harm,” Dena wrote, adding that he was concerned Conway would not receive the mental health treatment he needed in prison.

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