A judge this afternoon nearly doubled the bond amount for a Fort Myers man accused of threatening a Fort Myers police officer.

Robert Caldwell, 32, faces a charge of threatening a public servant, allegedly during a July 18 traffic stop. During the conversation, officer Walter Mitchell wrote in a memo to superiors, Caldwell told him he could "catch a bullet" if he kept arresting drug dealers in Harlem Lakes.

Caldwell was held on $50,000 bond on the charge, which is a third-degree felony. Lee Circuit Judge Mark Steinbeck today upped the amount to $90,000.

After Police Chief Doug Baker wrote a memo to Caldwell's first-appearance judge Tara Paluck last week, assistant state attorney Bryan Kaufman filed for an emergency hearing, the first half of which was held Friday.

Continued to today, Steinbeck, Caldwell's trial judge, ruled that the allegation, a prior incident involving Mitchell and Caldwell's previous conviction of accessory after the fact from an armed robbery charge, Paluck may not have had all the information when setting Caldwell's initial bond.

The prior incident was July 16, when another Harlem Lakes man, Barry Donnell White, allegedly made veiled threats to the officer. White has denied making the threats. Mitchell testified Friday that Caldwell and White know each other.

Caldwell's attorney, assistant public defender Maria Pace, argued that $50,000 for a third-degree felony is excessive, that there is no evidence of a connection to the July 16 incident and that if Caldwell was such a threat, he would have been arrested at the scene and not a week later.

"We think any increase in bond is unreasonable and the $50,000 bond is already unreasonable," she said.

Caldwell is being held at the Lee County Jail.