The FBI believes it has the right man this time in the tangled case of ricin-laced letters mailed to President Obama and two other public officials. Early Saturday, four days after authorities dropped charges against an Elvis impersonator in Mississippi, FBI agents arrested a man the impersonator had been feuding with, a former radio announcer and onetime candidate for the state Legislature who recently was charged with child molestation.
James Everett Dutschke, 41, was taken into custody at his home in Tupelo, Miss., the FBI said. He could face life in prison on federal charges of “knowingly developing, producing, stockpiling, transferring, acquiring, retaining and possessing a biological agent, toxin and delivery system, for use as a weapon,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oxford, Miss.
Dutschke proclaimed his innocence last week, saying he had cooperated with investigators and insisting he had no idea how to manufacture ricin, a toxin derived from the castor-bean plant that can kill quickly if inhaled. Lori Nail Basham, Dutschke’s attorney, declined to comment Saturday on her client’s arrest.
Dutschke had been the target of the investigation since the release from jail last week of Paul Kevin Curtis, 45, of Corinth, Miss. Curtis is the Elvis impersonator whom federal investigators initially charged with sending the poison letters to Obama, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Lee County Justice Court Judge Sadie Holland.
Holland said in a phone interview Saturday that she can’t imagine why Dutschke would have wanted to send her a poisoned letter, as authorities allege — “I have no earthly idea” — but she does remember having one unpleasant encounter with him.
In 2007, Dutschke ran as a Republican candidate for the Mississippi House of Representatives against her son, Democratic state Rep. Steve Holland. The judge said she attended a rally at which Dutschke excoriated her son’s performance in office. She confronted him afterward.
“I told him: ‘This is no way to run a campaign. You need to tell the people what you will do and what you have done. Don’t run your opponent down,’
James Everett Dutschke, 41, was taken into custody at his home in Tupelo, Miss., the FBI said. He could face life in prison on federal charges of “knowingly developing, producing, stockpiling, transferring, acquiring, retaining and possessing a biological agent, toxin and delivery system, for use as a weapon,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oxford, Miss.
Dutschke proclaimed his innocence last week, saying he had cooperated with investigators and insisting he had no idea how to manufacture ricin, a toxin derived from the castor-bean plant that can kill quickly if inhaled. Lori Nail Basham, Dutschke’s attorney, declined to comment Saturday on her client’s arrest.
Dutschke had been the target of the investigation since the release from jail last week of Paul Kevin Curtis, 45, of Corinth, Miss. Curtis is the Elvis impersonator whom federal investigators initially charged with sending the poison letters to Obama, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Lee County Justice Court Judge Sadie Holland.
Holland said in a phone interview Saturday that she can’t imagine why Dutschke would have wanted to send her a poisoned letter, as authorities allege — “I have no earthly idea” — but she does remember having one unpleasant encounter with him.
In 2007, Dutschke ran as a Republican candidate for the Mississippi House of Representatives against her son, Democratic state Rep. Steve Holland. The judge said she attended a rally at which Dutschke excoriated her son’s performance in office. She confronted him afterward.
“I told him: ‘This is no way to run a campaign. You need to tell the people what you will do and what you have done. Don’t run your opponent down,’