Ricin Letters: Elvis Impersonator Released, Martial Arts Instructor/Alleged Molester Arrested
FBI Searches for Clues in Ricin Investigation
By CNN Staff
updated 8:35 AM EDT, Fri April 26, 2013
FBI agents on Wednesday searched the former martial arts studio of a Tupelo man in connection with the investigation into ricin-tainted letters sent to President Barack Obama and other officials, the man's lawyer, Lori Basham, told CNN.
Agents in hazardous materials suits had searched James Everett Dutschke's home on Tuesday, the same day prosecutors dropped charges against the man arrested last week on suspicion of sending the letters.
Authorities have not called Dutschke a suspect and no charges have been filed. It was unclear what, if anything, they found.
Basham said Dutschke has not yet spoken to federal investigators. He did sign a consent form allowing the searches, she said. Dutschke no longer rents the taekwondo studio space, she said.
Investigators are trying to determine whether someone attempted to pin the poisonous letters on Paul Kevin Curtis of Corinth, Mississippi, a law enforcement source told CNN Tuesday on the condition of anonymity.
However, Curtis' attorney, Christi McCoy, said Wednesday on CNN that she believes investigators are now focusing on the possibility that the letters were a direct attack on the politicians they were addressed to, not purely an attempt to get at Curtis.
"Kevin just happens to be the scapegoat for it," she said.
In a court hearing Monday before the charges were dropped, Curtis said he was being framed and identified Dutschke as a potential culprit. Basham said Wednesday her client had nothing to do with the letters.
Prosecutors initially arrested Curtis April 17 and charged him with sending a threat to the president after letters containing a suspicious powder triggered security scares around Washington.
The letters -- sent to Obama; Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Mississippi; and Sadie Holland, a judge in Lee County, Mississippi -- touched off anxieties in Washington and elsewhere in the wake of the bombing of the Boston Marathon. The two incidents were unconnected, officials said.
The FBI said the letters tested positive for ricin, a toxin derived from castor beans that has no known antidote. No illnesses have been reported.
Authorities dropped the charges against Curtis on Tuesday after new information became available, U.S. Attorney Felicia Adams said.
McCoy said Wednesday that she does not believe Curtis is under any remaining suspicion. She said she believed investigators identified her client from constituent records maintained by Wicker's office and concluded he was responsible based on thin evidence.
She believes Curtis had been framed by someone who used several phrases he likes to use on social media.
The letters read, in part: "To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance."
They were signed "I am KC and I approve this message," a source told CNN.
Each letter had a Memphis, Tennessee, postmark and no return address.
Basham said Dutschke used to work for Curtis' brother, but the two have had no contact since 2010.
Curtis said Wednesday that he didn't even know what ricin is until he got out of jail and looked it up on the Internet.
When police suddenly stormed his home last week, Curtis said an investigator asked him about ricin, and Curtis said he responded, "Well, I don't eat rice, and I don't have any rice in the house."
While investigators didn't initially accept his claims of innocence, and he came close to losing hope during his week in jail, he said it's turned out as well as he could have hoped.
"This has restored my faith in our justice system," he said Wednesday on CNN.
Source: CNN
Lawyer Asks Government for Temporary Housing for Former Ricin Suspect
By Associated Press, Published: April 29
OXFORD, Miss. - A Mississippi man’s house is uninhabitable after investigators searched it but failed to find evidence of the deadly poison ricin, a lawyer said Monday, arguing that the government should repair the home.
Kevin Curtis was once charged in the mailing of poisoned letters to President Barack Obama, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker and a Mississippi judge, but the charges were later dropped. The investigation shifted last week to another man who had a falling out with Curtis, and that suspect appeared in court Monday on a charge of making ricin.
Curtis’ lawyer has sent a letter to U.S. Attorney Felicia Adams demanding that Curtis be provided temporary housing and the government repair his Corinth, Miss., home and possessions. She also wants the government to pay his legal bills.
“To be specific, Mr. Curtis’ home is uninhabitable. I have seen a lot of post search residences but this one is quite disturbing. The agents removed art from the walls, broke the frames and tore the artwork. Mr. Curtis offered his keys but agents chose to break the lock. Mr. Curtis’ garbage was scheduled to be picked up Thursday, the day after he was snatched from his life. A week later, the garbage remains in his home, along with millions of insects it attracted,” the letter says.
Though attorneys for Curtis say their client was framed, McCoy believes whoever sent the letters had a primary goal of targeting the public officials. Curtis has said that he feuded with the man now charged in the case, James Everett Dutschke.
“I think Kevin was just an afterthought or a scapegoat,” McCoy said.
Some of the language in the letters was similar to posts on Curtis’ Facebook page and they were signed, “I am KC and I approve this message.” Curtis often used a similar online signoff.
Had damaging Curtis been the point of the scheme, McCoy said she believes that whoever set up her client could have done a better job of implicating him, such as planting evidence at his home.
McCoy said in an interview Monday that she still believes the FBI acted on the best information available at the time, but it’s time to make her client whole. The letter said Curtis’ life was “ruined.”
Curtis, a 45-year-old Elvis impersonator, was arrested on April 17. The charges were dropped six days later and Curtis was released from jail.
A message left seeking comment about McCoy’s letter at the federal prosecutor’s office in Oxford wasn’t immediately returned.
After Curtis was released, the focus turned to Dutschke. In court Monday, a judge ordered that Dutschke be held without bond until a preliminary and detention hearing on Thursday. More details are likely to emerge at that hearing, when prosecutors have to show they have enough evidence to hold him.
Dutschke made a brief appearance wearing an orange jumpsuit with his hands shackled. The 41-year-old suspect said little during his hearing other than answering affirmatively to the judge’s questions about whether he understood the charges against him.
Dutschke (pronounced DUHS’-kee) has denied involvement in the mailing of the letters, saying he’s a patriot with no grudges against anyone. He has previously run for political office and was known to frequent political rallies in northern Mississippi.
An attorney from the public defender’s office appointed to represent Dutschke declined to comment after Monday’s hearing. Another attorney of Dutschke’s, Lori Nail Basham, said she will continue to represent him in other matters but not the federal case.
Dutschke’s house, business and vehicles in Tupelo, Miss., were searched last week, often by crews in hazardous materials suits, and he had been under surveillance.
He faces up to life in prison if convicted. A news release from federal authorities said Dutschke was charged with “knowingly developing, producing, stockpiling, transferring, acquiring, retaining and possessing a biological agent, toxin and delivery system, for use as a weapon, to wit: ricin.”
He already had legal problems. Earlier this month, he pleaded not guilty in state court to two child molestation charges involving three girls younger than 16, at least one of whom was a student at his martial arts studio. He also was appealing a conviction on a different charge of indecent exposure. He told The Associated Press last week that his lawyer told him not to comment on those cases.
Earlier in the week, as investigators searched his primary residence in Tupelo, Dutschke told the AP, “I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”
“I’m a patriotic American. I don’t have any grudges against anybody. ... I did not send the letters,” Dutschke said.
Dutschke and Curtis were acquainted. Curtis said they had talked about possibly publishing a book on a conspiracy that Curtis says he uncovered about the black-market sale of body parts. But he said they later had a feud.
Curtis’s attorney Hal Neilson said the legal team gave authorities a list of people who may have had a reason to hurt Curtis and Dutschke’s came up.
The Mississippi judge who received one of the letters, Sadie Holland, is part of a family that has had political skirmishes with Dutschke. Her son, Steve Holland, a Democratic state representative, said his mother encountered Dutschke at a rally in the town of Verona in 2007, when Dutschke ran as a Republican against Steve Holland.
Holland said his mother confronted Dutschke after he made a derogatory speech about the Holland family. She demanded that he apologize, which Holland says he did.
Dutschke’s MySpace page has several pictures with him and Wicker, though he’s never worked for Wicker’s campaign. Republicans in north Mississippi say Dutschke used to frequently show up at GOP events and mingle with people, usually finding a way to get a snapshot of himself with the headliner.
“He would always hand his camera to somebody to get his picture made,” longtime Republican Mike Armour of Tupelo said by phone Monday.
A woman described by a neighbor as Dutschke’s wife arrived at their home Monday afternoon but covered her face and did not respond to a reporter as she walked from a green minivan into the house.
Rory Key lives just down the street from Dutschke’s house. He said Dutschke came to his house while the FBI was searching the suspect’s home asking for a drink and a snack.
He said the suspect was more upset than nervous. Key said he doesn’t believe Dutscke committed the crime. He also said he didn’t know him that well because Dustchke kept to himself.
___
Associated Press writer Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson contributed to this report.
Source: Washington Post
OP: I swear this actually sounds like an episode of CSI with a wacky red herring initial suspect.
Sorry for submitting two posts. They're both updates on news from two weeks ago that apparently haven't been posted to _p.
By CNN Staff
updated 8:35 AM EDT, Fri April 26, 2013
FBI agents on Wednesday searched the former martial arts studio of a Tupelo man in connection with the investigation into ricin-tainted letters sent to President Barack Obama and other officials, the man's lawyer, Lori Basham, told CNN.
Agents in hazardous materials suits had searched James Everett Dutschke's home on Tuesday, the same day prosecutors dropped charges against the man arrested last week on suspicion of sending the letters.
Authorities have not called Dutschke a suspect and no charges have been filed. It was unclear what, if anything, they found.
Basham said Dutschke has not yet spoken to federal investigators. He did sign a consent form allowing the searches, she said. Dutschke no longer rents the taekwondo studio space, she said.
Investigators are trying to determine whether someone attempted to pin the poisonous letters on Paul Kevin Curtis of Corinth, Mississippi, a law enforcement source told CNN Tuesday on the condition of anonymity.
However, Curtis' attorney, Christi McCoy, said Wednesday on CNN that she believes investigators are now focusing on the possibility that the letters were a direct attack on the politicians they were addressed to, not purely an attempt to get at Curtis.
"Kevin just happens to be the scapegoat for it," she said.
In a court hearing Monday before the charges were dropped, Curtis said he was being framed and identified Dutschke as a potential culprit. Basham said Wednesday her client had nothing to do with the letters.
Prosecutors initially arrested Curtis April 17 and charged him with sending a threat to the president after letters containing a suspicious powder triggered security scares around Washington.
The letters -- sent to Obama; Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Mississippi; and Sadie Holland, a judge in Lee County, Mississippi -- touched off anxieties in Washington and elsewhere in the wake of the bombing of the Boston Marathon. The two incidents were unconnected, officials said.
The FBI said the letters tested positive for ricin, a toxin derived from castor beans that has no known antidote. No illnesses have been reported.
Authorities dropped the charges against Curtis on Tuesday after new information became available, U.S. Attorney Felicia Adams said.
McCoy said Wednesday that she does not believe Curtis is under any remaining suspicion. She said she believed investigators identified her client from constituent records maintained by Wicker's office and concluded he was responsible based on thin evidence.
She believes Curtis had been framed by someone who used several phrases he likes to use on social media.
The letters read, in part: "To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance."
They were signed "I am KC and I approve this message," a source told CNN.
Each letter had a Memphis, Tennessee, postmark and no return address.
Basham said Dutschke used to work for Curtis' brother, but the two have had no contact since 2010.
Curtis said Wednesday that he didn't even know what ricin is until he got out of jail and looked it up on the Internet.
When police suddenly stormed his home last week, Curtis said an investigator asked him about ricin, and Curtis said he responded, "Well, I don't eat rice, and I don't have any rice in the house."
While investigators didn't initially accept his claims of innocence, and he came close to losing hope during his week in jail, he said it's turned out as well as he could have hoped.
"This has restored my faith in our justice system," he said Wednesday on CNN.
Source: CNN
Lawyer Asks Government for Temporary Housing for Former Ricin Suspect
By Associated Press, Published: April 29
OXFORD, Miss. - A Mississippi man’s house is uninhabitable after investigators searched it but failed to find evidence of the deadly poison ricin, a lawyer said Monday, arguing that the government should repair the home.
Kevin Curtis was once charged in the mailing of poisoned letters to President Barack Obama, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker and a Mississippi judge, but the charges were later dropped. The investigation shifted last week to another man who had a falling out with Curtis, and that suspect appeared in court Monday on a charge of making ricin.
Curtis’ lawyer has sent a letter to U.S. Attorney Felicia Adams demanding that Curtis be provided temporary housing and the government repair his Corinth, Miss., home and possessions. She also wants the government to pay his legal bills.
“To be specific, Mr. Curtis’ home is uninhabitable. I have seen a lot of post search residences but this one is quite disturbing. The agents removed art from the walls, broke the frames and tore the artwork. Mr. Curtis offered his keys but agents chose to break the lock. Mr. Curtis’ garbage was scheduled to be picked up Thursday, the day after he was snatched from his life. A week later, the garbage remains in his home, along with millions of insects it attracted,” the letter says.
Though attorneys for Curtis say their client was framed, McCoy believes whoever sent the letters had a primary goal of targeting the public officials. Curtis has said that he feuded with the man now charged in the case, James Everett Dutschke.
“I think Kevin was just an afterthought or a scapegoat,” McCoy said.
Some of the language in the letters was similar to posts on Curtis’ Facebook page and they were signed, “I am KC and I approve this message.” Curtis often used a similar online signoff.
Had damaging Curtis been the point of the scheme, McCoy said she believes that whoever set up her client could have done a better job of implicating him, such as planting evidence at his home.
McCoy said in an interview Monday that she still believes the FBI acted on the best information available at the time, but it’s time to make her client whole. The letter said Curtis’ life was “ruined.”
Curtis, a 45-year-old Elvis impersonator, was arrested on April 17. The charges were dropped six days later and Curtis was released from jail.
A message left seeking comment about McCoy’s letter at the federal prosecutor’s office in Oxford wasn’t immediately returned.
After Curtis was released, the focus turned to Dutschke. In court Monday, a judge ordered that Dutschke be held without bond until a preliminary and detention hearing on Thursday. More details are likely to emerge at that hearing, when prosecutors have to show they have enough evidence to hold him.
Dutschke made a brief appearance wearing an orange jumpsuit with his hands shackled. The 41-year-old suspect said little during his hearing other than answering affirmatively to the judge’s questions about whether he understood the charges against him.
Dutschke (pronounced DUHS’-kee) has denied involvement in the mailing of the letters, saying he’s a patriot with no grudges against anyone. He has previously run for political office and was known to frequent political rallies in northern Mississippi.
An attorney from the public defender’s office appointed to represent Dutschke declined to comment after Monday’s hearing. Another attorney of Dutschke’s, Lori Nail Basham, said she will continue to represent him in other matters but not the federal case.
Dutschke’s house, business and vehicles in Tupelo, Miss., were searched last week, often by crews in hazardous materials suits, and he had been under surveillance.
He faces up to life in prison if convicted. A news release from federal authorities said Dutschke was charged with “knowingly developing, producing, stockpiling, transferring, acquiring, retaining and possessing a biological agent, toxin and delivery system, for use as a weapon, to wit: ricin.”
He already had legal problems. Earlier this month, he pleaded not guilty in state court to two child molestation charges involving three girls younger than 16, at least one of whom was a student at his martial arts studio. He also was appealing a conviction on a different charge of indecent exposure. He told The Associated Press last week that his lawyer told him not to comment on those cases.
Earlier in the week, as investigators searched his primary residence in Tupelo, Dutschke told the AP, “I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”
“I’m a patriotic American. I don’t have any grudges against anybody. ... I did not send the letters,” Dutschke said.
Dutschke and Curtis were acquainted. Curtis said they had talked about possibly publishing a book on a conspiracy that Curtis says he uncovered about the black-market sale of body parts. But he said they later had a feud.
Curtis’s attorney Hal Neilson said the legal team gave authorities a list of people who may have had a reason to hurt Curtis and Dutschke’s came up.
The Mississippi judge who received one of the letters, Sadie Holland, is part of a family that has had political skirmishes with Dutschke. Her son, Steve Holland, a Democratic state representative, said his mother encountered Dutschke at a rally in the town of Verona in 2007, when Dutschke ran as a Republican against Steve Holland.
Holland said his mother confronted Dutschke after he made a derogatory speech about the Holland family. She demanded that he apologize, which Holland says he did.
Dutschke’s MySpace page has several pictures with him and Wicker, though he’s never worked for Wicker’s campaign. Republicans in north Mississippi say Dutschke used to frequently show up at GOP events and mingle with people, usually finding a way to get a snapshot of himself with the headliner.
“He would always hand his camera to somebody to get his picture made,” longtime Republican Mike Armour of Tupelo said by phone Monday.
A woman described by a neighbor as Dutschke’s wife arrived at their home Monday afternoon but covered her face and did not respond to a reporter as she walked from a green minivan into the house.
Rory Key lives just down the street from Dutschke’s house. He said Dutschke came to his house while the FBI was searching the suspect’s home asking for a drink and a snack.
He said the suspect was more upset than nervous. Key said he doesn’t believe Dutscke committed the crime. He also said he didn’t know him that well because Dustchke kept to himself.
___
Associated Press writer Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson contributed to this report.
Source: Washington Post
OP: I swear this actually sounds like an episode of CSI with a wacky red herring initial suspect.
Sorry for submitting two posts. They're both updates on news from two weeks ago that apparently haven't been posted to _p.