February 19, 1998
Web posted at: 2:35 p.m. EST (1935 GMT) 

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The FBI has taken two men into custody in Las Vegas after suspecting them of developing the deadly biological agent anthrax, top FBI sources told CNN on Thursday. 

The men, who are believed to be U.S. citizens, were picked up Wednesday night, after "FBI agents were told the two men had biological agents," the source said. An FBI official said that the two were charged with plotting to use a toxic biological agent as a weapon. 

FBI officials found an unknown substance at an undisclosed site, and dispatched the FBI Hazardous Materials Response Unit from Quantico, Virginia, to examine the material, the source said. 

A spokesman for Nellis Air Force Base, near Las Vegas, said authorities impounded a vehicle at the request of the FBI. The spokesman gave no further details. 

CNN was told that five U.S. Army specialists have gone to Las Vegas from the Army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. Four of the soldiers are with the Army's Technical Escort Unit, and one is a lab technician specializing in chemical and biological threats. 

A source close to the investigation told CNN there is no sure evidence pointing to a specific target for the biological agent, but said one of the men in custody apparently made references to New York in some writings. 

That same man was arrested two years ago in a case involving possession of a biological agent and had a map of the New York City subway system with him, but no link was ever established between the biological substance and the map, sources told CNN.

In a hastily called news conference on Thursday, New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said there was no connection between Wednesday's arrests and a purported plot to attack New York City. 

"There was absolutely no plot or plan to attack the New York City subway," Giuliani told reporters at City Hall.

Harris told talk show Iraqis poised to strike

February 20, 1998
Web posted at: 10:15 p.m. EST (0315 GMT) 

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- A man arrested on charges of possessing what is believed to be the deadly toxin anthrax predicted on a radio talk show the day before his arrest that the United States would be the target of a major biological attack within two years. 

Tuesday, Larry Wayne Harris, speaking on Talk America Radio Network's "The Buck Stops Here," gave a detailed description of what he said was a plot involving more than 200 "sleeper cells" of Iraqi students poised to unleash anthrax and bubonic plague bacteria on the American people. 

"The odds of us making it through even the end of this century without a major biological incident are very low," Harris said. 

Harris, 46, and William Leavitt Jr., 47, were arrested Wednesday night in a Las Vegas suburb after an informant called the FBI to report the two men told him they had anthrax. They are being held at the Clark County Detention Center. 

Laboratory test results to determine whether a substance seized was in fact anthrax were delayed Friday. No reason was given. 

Leavitt's attorney: Tests will be negative

Leavitt's attorney, Lamond Mills, said in an interview with CNN in Las Vegas he believes the tests will prove negative. 

"On Monday, I think the test results will be in and show that it's non-toxic, and they're going to have to stand up and acknowledge that. And their case is going to be flushed," Mills said. 

In the radio interview, Harris said he learned of a bacteriological threat against the United States because he was "heavily involved" in the training of Iraqis between 1985 and 1990 when he worked for a "corporation," an apparent reference to the CIA. 

In the preface to his book, "Bacteriological Warfare: A Major Threat to North America," Harris claimed that he once worked for the CIA. 

"I'm actually one of the scientists who was literally involved in training Iraqi microbiologists on how to conduct biological warfare defense," he said Tuesday. 

Harris claims Iraqi students smuggled 'biologicals' 

Harris said that after the 1991 Gulf War, he learned from a former Iraqi student he befriended that Iraqi "college students were now in the process of smuggling biologicals into the United States." 

Harris then gave the radio audience a detailed descriptions of the methods the Iraqi students were using to grow the smuggled bacteria and distribute it to the "cells" around the U.S. for eventual attacks on U.S. cities. 

"Anthrax, if you take a commercial paint sprayer and went up the Hudson River and sprayed it out into the air, you have a mist that moves over Manhattan," Harris said. 

"People unsuspectingly walking in that area breathe in the deadly microbes," he said. "There's no smell. There's no taste. There's no boom. There's no bang. There is no indication." 

The Iraqis were poised to attack at anytime, Harris said. 

"They are here, and they are very able to hit us whenever they want to," he said. Harris claimed that a single individual with a single container of anthrax could kill between 400,000 and 1.3 million people. 

Report: Harris admitted culturing anthrax

Back in November, Harris, a self-avowed white separatist, told U.S. News & World Report in an interview that he had cultured anthrax but did not plan to use it for any malicious purpose. 

The magazine quotes Harris predicting that the Aryan Nations -- a far-right group to which he once belonged -- would strike at federal officials with biological agents if "they arrest a bunch of our guys." 

They would "get a test tube in the mail," he said. 

Leavitt, a businessman, who like Harris, is a licensed microbiologist, owns clinical laboratories in Logandale, Nevada, and Frankfurt, Germany, and is said to have been trying to develop a vaccine for AIDS. 

His attorney, Mills, says Harris and Leavitt met at a scientific convention in Denver last August and discussed a joint project to develop a vaccine for anthrax. 

Mills said that even if the lab tests are positive, federal officials "would have to prove that he knowingly was a part (of a conspiracy) to do something with that anthrax."

March 24, 1998

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - An Ohio man arrested in a Nevada anthrax scare was given a longer, more restricted probation on Tuesday for telling people he was with the CIA.

Larry Wayne Harris, 46, of Lancaster, was already on 18 months' probation from a 1995 conviction for illegally ordering bubonic plague bacteria by mail. A judge on Tuesday wiped the remaining six months off the books and gave him another year - effectively putting him on probation for an extra six months.

Harris and a second man were arrested in Las Vegas Feb. 18 after an FBI informant said they claimed to have deadly military-grade anthrax in their possession. Charges against Harris and William Leavitt Jr., 47, of Logandale, Nev., were dismissed on Feb. 23 after tests showed the material was a harmless anthrax veterinary vaccine.

Some of those charges - that he claimed to have deadly anthrax and produced infectious disease, bacteria or germs at his home in Lancaster, about 30 miles south of Columbus - later were dismissed by federal Magistrate Mark Abel for lack of evidence.

But Abel found there was enough evidence to hold a hearing on other accusations of probation violation, and Harris was released to face probation violation charges in Ohio.

During a U.S. District Court hearing in Columbus Tuesday, Harris admitted he violated probation by lying about an association with the CIA and failing to tell authorities that he switched hotel rooms while he was in Las Vegas.

Judge Joseph Kinneary imposed the new probation, which will require Harris to report to a probation officer more often.

Harris also was ordered to serve 50 hours of community service. He could have been sentenced to up to five years in jail for violating probation.

"I am sorry for any inconvenience I caused the court," Harris told Kinneary.

Later, as he left court, Harris said only that he felt "fantastic" but wouldn't comment further.

"Larry has done nothing wrong. He committed no crimes," his attorney Curt Griffith said after the hearing.

Griffith then warned Harris: "Don't let the word 'CIA' come out of your mouth."

Harris smiled in response.

Miami Beach anthrax scare was a hoax

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - Workers at a glitzy Miami Beach fashion magazine were rushed to a hospital for decontamination Wednesday when a receptionist opened a letter purporting to contain infectious anthrax. Nineteen people were decontaminated and put on antibiotics as a precaution against the bacterium, which is found in cattle and sheep and can be used as a biological weapon. Authorities said late Wednesday the letter was a hoax, but they did not know what the envelope contained. "It is not anthrax, I repeat, not anthrax," said FBI spokesman Mike Fabregas. The hoax was the latest in a series of anthrax scares in the U.S. In late October, letters purporting to contain anthrax were sent to abortion clinics in several cities.

By Maria Elena Fernandez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 5, 1999; Page B08 

Two letters containing an unidentified substance and one terrifying word -- "anthrax" -- were opened in Washington yesterday, one at The Washington Post and the other at the Old Executive Office Building. The letters proved to be a hoax.

Similar letters arrived yesterday at an NBC News office in Atlanta and a U.S. post office in Columbus, Ga. They also appeared to be part of a deception that is becoming familiar across the nation.

Letters and packages claiming to contain the lethal bacteria have been delivered to courthouses, abortion clinics and office buildings, creating chaotic evacuations, mass quarantines and a wave of panic across the United States.

"It's almost a matter of routine now, particularly in L.A.," FBI spokeswoman Susan Lloyd said. "It happens so frequently. I know that a lot of manpower is used to respond to each of these incidents. I don't think anyone in public service wants to drop their guard."

A threatening letter arrived at The Washington Post on Wednesday afternoon, but was not opened until yesterday morning, Lloyd said. The rambling letter claimed that a substance enclosed in a double plastic bag was anthrax, prompting security personnel to contact law enforcement officials at 10 a.m., said Linda Erdos, a spokeswoman for The Post.

A D.C. Fire Department hazardous material crew responded to the 1100 block of 15th Street NW, removed the letter and determined it was unnecessary to evacuate The Post, Battalion Chief Tom Johnson said. The letter was turned over to the FBI's Domestic Terrorism Task Force, which determined yesterday afternoon that the substance was harmless, Lloyd said.

"It couldn't get loose, because it was in the double plastic bag, like a freezer bag," Johnson said. "We've gotten pretty experienced at determining these things."

Another letter, received at the Old Executive Office Building soon after the scare at The Post, "was similar if not identical to the one at The Post," said Lloyd, who added that the FBI was treating the cases as a single investigation. Secret Service agent Jim Mackin declined to elaborate on that letter. The Old Executive Office Building was not evacuated either.

In Atlanta, police evacuated a three-block area of the city's Midtown neighborhood as law enforcement officers dealt with a letter delivered to a local office of NBC News at 11:40 a.m. NBC spokeswoman Barbara Levin said that a letter "containing an anthrax" threat was received and the building was evacuated. About a dozen people underwent a decontamination procedure and were taken to a hospital.

The fourth letter was sent to a post office in Columbus, 85 miles south of Atlanta, said Atlanta-based FBI spokesman Jay Spatafore. He declined to comment further.

Law enforcement officials say the Georgia incidents do not appear to be the work of the same groups or individual. Police would not say whether they thought yesterday's letters were related. 

Since late last year, nearly two dozen anthrax threats have been reported in greater Los Angeles. Last fall, several abortion clinics in the Midwest received letters claiming that a brown powder found in each of the envelopes was the deadly germ. All of the reports were false.

Anthrax spores, found in diseased sheep and cattle, can exist in water and soil and be transmitted by skin contact. The germs can also be spread in biological warfare.

An anthrax scare paralyzed part of the District in April 1997 when a package was delivered to the international headquarters of B'nai B'rith, sparking an hours-long chemical hazard alert that closed several downtown streets. The powder in that package turned out to be common bacteria.
 

© Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company

Mayor criticizes FBI handling of anthrax scare Local authorities lament lack of communication

By Debbie Howlett and Toni Locy
USA TODAY

The FBI knew about a possible anthrax contamination at Microsoft offices in Reno for 48 hours before local authorities were alerted -- by a television reporter.

The threat ultimately turned out to be bogus. The suspicious letter mailed in mid-October from Malaysia tested negative for anthrax spores. Even so, Mayor Jeff Griffin says, it was irresponsible for the FBI not to inform him so he could act to protect his city. And, he says, local police might have assisted the investigation.

''God almighty, I don't want to pick a fight with the FBI,'' Griffin says, ''but we've got to figure this out.''

Griffin's frustration is shared by other local authorities, who since the attacks Sept. 11 have become increasingly upset over what they say is a lack of communication and cooperation by federal law enforcement.

The frustration began boiling over into the public arena when local officials complained that Attorney General John Ashcroft issued two nationwide terrorism alerts in recent weeks without warning them in advance.

Tuesday, Ashcroft moved to ease tensions by ordering federal prosecutors to devise a system for sharing information with local and state law enforcement ''24 hours a day, 7 days a week'' by Dec. 1.

Ashcroft also said $9.3 million would be made available to help state and local officials in the anti-terrorism effort. He said the money could be spent hiring information analysts or buying communication equipment.

Local officials say enlisting their help can do more than ease their concerns that the FBI's lack of cooperation has left them in the dark and their constituents possibly vulnerable.

It can add 600,000 local law officials to the domestic war on terrorism, they say. Already, the 12,000 federal agents assigned to the biggest case in history have served 4,000 warrants and interviewed more than 1,000 people detained during the past 8 weeks. But they also are swamped with tens of thousands of phone tips that need to be checked out.

''To a man, my guys are ready to jump in,'' says Mike Berkow, police chief in Irvine, Calif.,

Ashcroft's steps toward fostering cooperation aren't all that need to be done to overcome barriers, local officials say.

Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, agree and have crafted legislation that would permit federal agents to share information with local law enforcement agencies.

Their bill would bridge a gap that critics say exists even with the recent passage of sweeping anti-terrorism legislation. The new law, the USA Patriot Act, eliminated barriers between federal agencies in sharing secret intelligence and criminal evidence among themselves, but not local and state police.

Ashcroft supports the Schumer-Hatch legislation, and in recent weeks, FBI Director Robert Mueller has publicly pledged three times to improve cooperation.

''I learned in some cases, the FBI was turning away your offers of help,'' Mueller told the nation's police chiefs at a convention last week. ''This is unacceptable.''

Even so, many wonder whether the gulf that exists between feds and locals can be easily overcome even in a time of national crisis. Many of the difficulties that stand in the way of cooperation, local and state law enforcement leaders say, are endemic.

A culture among federal agents leads to disdain for local police and their work, many say.

Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, a former FBI agent, says he remembers being taught during training that ''local law enforcement is undereducated and frequently corrupt. . . . That culture needs to be addressed.''

Other barriers are more recent and mundane. A secure communication system doesn't allow local law enforcement to e-mail FBI agents at the 56 field offices or headquarters.

Whatever it takes to overcome the gulf, it should happen quickly, officials warn.

''We're in a new world, and we have to cooperate with each other,'' New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani told a House terrorism subcommittee hearing last week.

If the mail is once again used as a weapon of fear in Lafayette, will we be ready?

The Times of Acadiana
Nick Pittman / Assistant Editor

Posted on May 29, 2002

"I really hope, that in the community, that maybe this is a positive thing," says Craig Noel of Argus Security. What he refers to as a "positive thing" - surprisingly enough - is the rash of hoax letters that flooded Lafayette residences and businesses, such as Argus, April 19. 

On that day some 200 letters arrived at destinations throughout town and even as far away as Baton Rouge and San Antonio, Texas. The letters, printed with a font that resembled handwriting, promised that 25 bombs would detonate April 27 during the height of Festival International de Louisiane. Some letters were also coated in a powdery substance that has since tested negative for anthrax. The letters also pinned responsibility on someone or something called "the Brothers" and contained two lines of Hebrew and Arabic writing. 

Once translated, the mishmash of letters and accents broke down into meaningless gibberish. According to a translator, "I suppose the one who wrote these two lines knows very little Arabic and (they) didn't even come up with one single word." 

No arrests have been made in the case [check HERE for information about the later arrest], but U.S. Attorney Donald Washington recently announced that his office is closing in on two suspects. However, the office would not divulge if the suspects matched the FBI profile previously given of "a loner with no friends."

Asked if he thought this incident might slip Lafayette into a "Boy Who Cried Wolf" syndrome, Noel states that he thinks it was an eye-opening experience and, "probably helped our readiness ... even though we were on a higher caution level, it even heightened that." With Vice President Dick Cheney's recent comments that another attack is "not a matter of if, but when," it is definitely a question worth asking.

The Times posed the same question to local authorities - does a false alarm like this hurt our readiness? 

"Well, I think it affects our readiness. I think what it does is it sharpens our readiness," says Cpl. Mark Francis of the Lafayette Police Department. "The more you do something the better you get at it." 

Although, in the months following Sept. 11, patrols have been stepped up in some vital areas of the city, and extra security has been brought in to guard electrical and water facilities, Francis does not see Lafayette as a target. He blames the hoax on "local folks pretty much trying to mirror what's going on around the world ... trying to take matters into their hands to make a point."

Another authority who shares Francis' sentiments is Trent Strasburg of the Louisiana district of the U.S. Postal Inspectors. The inspectors are brought in whenever the mail is used to violate laws - be it pipe bombs or pornography. 

"It is one thing to sit back and have meetings and say we are going to do this and do that," says Strasburg. "But, when the group actually has to respond, not knowing if it is real or not, then we see how effective it is going to be. From that standpoint I think it was an improvement. All that came together real well and certainly showed us what we were doing right and what we can do better next time."

Since the letters scare, little has changed in Lafayette post offices. Troy Southerland, Lafayette's postmaster, says that his post offices were already taking the necessary precautions with the mail stream. However, he does admit that, unless there is a spill, it is hard to catch something like fake anthrax in the half million pieces of mail that travel through Lafayette every day. 

"We, like every other post office, are taking much precaution," says Southerland.  "However, they (Lafayette citizens) are entitled to delivery service whether they are the person sending or receiving, and we are going to provide that service."

Although these officials tout this incident as a great training exercise, it did not come without great costs.

On Oct. 30, 2001, Katherine Howard didn't feel like missing her child's birthday party to go in to work at the Burger King in Fort Polk's Post Exchange. Instead of calling in sick, she made a decision that would change her life forever. 

From a payphone, Howard and an accomplice phoned in an anthrax threat to the PX, thereby evacuating the building and freeing her from her work commitment. After the threat, the PX was evacuated and 27 people were decontaminated, sent to the hospital and given prescriptions for antibiotics.

On Tuesday, May 14, Howard pled guilty to the charge of threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction. This crime carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and/or a fine of up to $250,000. The authorities response to her call and the PX's loss amounted to $250,000. If this one incident cost a quarter million dollars, how much will 200 incidents cost?

After the letters hoax, postal inspectors based in New Orleans were dispatched to Lafayette to investigate the case. Although Strasburg could not estimate a price tag on this investigation, he did say that, "it all adds up in a hurry."

Strasburg states that there were between five and 15 inspectors working on the Lafayette case. These inspectors' annual salaries, which vary depending on their tenure with the department, range from $40,000 to $95,000. These salaries do not account for travel expenses, lodging, lab costs and the inspectors' support staff.

In Lafayette, the Fire Department, according to Deputy Chief James Hebert, spent $16,130 in response to the 184 anthrax calls it received between April 19 and 29. The bulk of the costs occurred in the department's deployment of trucks and supplies used to handle the calls. Deploying trucks to each of the 184 calls cost $50 each, totaling $9,200. Ziploc bags (the department used three or four for each call) at $1.10 each rang up $607. Four protective gloves were used for every call at $3 a pair, costing them $1,104. Protective Level B suits cost the investigating firefighters $720. About another $80 was doled out for bleach and pump sprayers. The department estimates that it spent $4,416 on officers' salaries, which it used sparingly to avoid high overtime costs, in response to the hoax. 

The Police Department, on the other hand, was forced to call in off-duty officers to help control the situation. According to Francis, the Police Department incurred between $5,500 to $6,000 in overtime costs alone. There were also lots of hidden costs that could not be tabulated because much of the officers' weekend shifts were devoted to the case.

The Fire and Police departments alone have already spent around $22,000 just on responding to this hoax. This amount does not include the untold amounts lost by businesses shutting down or the costs that are being incurred by the investigation - costs which the U.S. attorney's office could not comment on - and the costs that will stem from the arrest and prosecution of the letter writer. 

Says the Post Office's Southerland, "Eventually somebody's going to have to pay for this. If you spend half a million dollars on a hoax somebody's got to pay for it. You can't expect the police department, the fire department, the Hazmat unit to be out there when this is going on and not be paid.

"Eventually," the postmaster concludes, "you and I, pay for it in taxes."

Nick Pittman is associate editor for The Times. Phone him at 237-3560, ext. 117, or e-mail him at nick.pittman@timesofacadiana.com.

Oakland man arraigned on suspicion of mailing anthrax threat to Ashcroft

By Sandra Gonzales
Mercury News

A 33-year-old man appeared in Oakland federal court Friday for an anthrax threat he allegedly made against U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft that forced a Wyoming postal facility to close for two days in December.

Dean Wilbur, 33, of Oakland was arrested Thursday on a federal warrant, charging him with threatening the use of a weapon of  mass destruction.

He's accused of mailing in mid-December an envelope containing white powder, with a handwritten note implying it was anthrax.  The envelope, addressed to Ashcroft, had a Laramie, Wyo., postmark. It was discovered at the U.S. Postal Service Processing Center in Cheyenne, Wyo., on Dec. 17, when the envelope burst open and a white powdery substance spilled and scattered at the facility. FBI spokesman Andrew Black said Wilbur was traveling from the Washington, D.C., area to the Bay Area when he mailed the letter in Wyoming.

As a result of the spill, seven postal employees were hospitalized for observation, and the facility was closed for two days while the substance -- which turned out to be baby powder -- was tested.

A subsequent investigation linked Wilbur to the letter, and he was indicted by a Wyoming federal grand jury May 17.

Wilbur's arrest Thursday at his Jackson Street home is part of an ongoing investigation by the Bay Area Joint Terrorism Task Force, a 24-member agency that focuses on terrorists acts.

The FBI, the U.S. Marshal's Office and California Highway Patrol assisted in Wilbur's arrest. Wilbur was advised of the charges in court Friday, and will have a hearing next month, when a court-appointed attorney may be assigned and a determination made on whether he will be tried in Wyoming or face the charges in the Bay Area.

Contact Sandra Gonzales at sgonzales@sjmercury.com or (510) 839-5321. 

By EDMUND H. MAHONY
Courant Staff Writer

June 5 2002

It is unlikely anyone will be prosecuted for perpetrating the anthrax hoax that closed part of downtown Hartford last year because someone destroyed the evidence, and the credibility of a key witness was ruined when he was hurriedly arrested, officials said.

The disclosures were made in federal court in HartfordTuesday where state employee Joseph A. Faryniarz Jr. was supposed to plead guilty to lying to the FBI about the hoax. Faryniarz has never been suspected of perpetrating the hoax. Rather, he is accused of making misleading statements that contributed to turning a practical joke into an expensive security drama.

But after his lawyer portrayed Faryniarz in court Tuesday as the hoax victim, U.S. District Judge Alfred Covello postponed the proceeding until next summer and said there may not be enough evidence to support the charge of making false statements.

Faryniarz is the only person to be arrested after a bad joke among employees at the state Department of Environmental Protection turned into an anthrax contamination scare on Oct. 11, 2001, closing down a portion of Hartford's Capitol District for most of a day. The joke was supposed to be on Faryniarz. Someone put an anonymous note and what turned out to be non-dairy coffee creamer on his computer keyboard, his lawyer, Richard Brown, said in court. 

Faryniarz alerted what his lawyer described as the DEP's building security office, and 800 workers were evacuated from DEP headquarters. The DEP employees - including Faryniarz - were forced to submit to uncomfortable decontamination procedures. The state claims it lost $1 million in worker productivity alone.

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the subsequent wave of anthrax contaminations, federal officials were under enormous pressure to clamp down on hoaxes. Faryniarz was arrested four days after the Hartford hoax. A day later, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft called him a "coward."

Brown disclosed in court Tuesday that the so-called anthrax - key evidence if a case were to be made against the perpetrator - was missing. "Certain evidence is no longer in existence," Brown said. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Appleton later said Brown was referring to the white, powdery substance that caused the scare.

A variety of state and federal officials refused to discuss what happened to the faux anthrax. But a source, speaking on the condition that he not be identified, said it was destroyed by state officials.

The account of the anthrax scare that was given in court Tuesday suggests that Faryniarz might have been a key witness if a case were presented against the hoax's perpetrator. But lawyers said his credibility evaporated when he arrived in court prepared to admit to lying to federal investigators.

Although Covello said prosecutors might not be able to charge Faryniarz with making false statements to authorities, he could be subject to prosecution for having knowledge of the anthrax hoax, but failing to report it to authorities. 

Brown said the anthrax fiasco developed on Oct. 10, 2001 - the day before the Hartford scare - when Faryniarz pointedly expressed disgust for the perpetrators of the hoaxes erupting across the country in the weeks following terrorist attacks. 

The next day, Brown said, Faryniarz reported to work and stretched his legs in the office while waiting for the sluggish computer on his desk to warm up. When he returned to his desk, he found a white powdery substance on top of a piece of brown paper towel lying on his computer keyboard. The word anthrax was misspelled on the paper towel.

Faryniarz alerted DEP security people, who folded the powder in the scrap of paper towel and walked away. Not long after, Faryniarz was summoned to the security office to answer more questions.

Brown said Faryniarz had no idea who put the powder on his desk, or what the powder was. But enroute to the security office, Brown said, a co-worker stopped Faryniarz and "basically begged" him not to implicate him in the hoax. The co-worker, who was not identified in court, told Faryniarz he had a wife and children and could not afford to lose his job.

For the next 48 hours, over a series of interviews with FBI agents, Faryniarz failed to tell authorities about the pleading co-worker. He also gave agents misleading information that could have directed their attention away from the co-worker.

"He failed to tell officers of the true individual's identity and that the substance was not truly a contaminant, namely anthrax," Appleton said in court.

Brown replied in court that Faryniarz never had any idea what the substance was, and still has no firsthand knowledge of who put it on his desk.

Faryniarz was arrested on Oct. 15 and is on paid leave from the DEP, where he has worked for 22 years. 

Copyright 2002, Hartford Courant

As McMinn County Criminal Court swung into gear for the June session, several pleas were entered in a variety of cases including one which involved the fabrication of an “anthrax” hoax in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks last fall. 

Diane Nellie Stafford, 37, of 251 County Road 52, Athens, was first charged with filing a false report, a Class E felony, in October after she and two juveniles appeared at the McMinn County Justice Center bearing a package with a surprise inside. 

Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Gary Miller spoke with the trio when they arrived telling police the package contained nude photos of an adult male “and also had another object taped to one of the photos,” Miller stated in the report filed in October. 

“Upon removing the object from the photo, officers noticed a white powder falling from inside the object,” Miller stated. “The office area was immediately secured where the package was examined and all three subjects were interviewed.” 

During questioning Miller said one of the trio “admitted putting baking soda into aluminum foil and taping it to the picture.” 

According to Miller, Stafford and one of the juveniles told detectives they were aware the package contained baking soda and Miller said they additionally admitted the package was affixed to the photo at Stafford’s residence. 

“Both stated they wanted the subject who sent the pictures to be charged with sending the powder,” stated Miller. \ During a November preliminary hearing, Miller testified Stafford and the two juveniles came to the Sheriff’s Department Oct. 29 with the package in hand. 

The package was in a large shipping envelope which was shown as evidence to General Sessions Judge James Watson during the hearing. 

“They presented me with a large package. (Stafford) explained to me that her daughter was sent the pictures and as I was talking to Mrs. Stafford she pointed out that there was another package attached to the back of one of the pictures,” Miller testified. 

According to testimony, the photos were sent by a relative from Panama City, Fla., and contained nude photos which upset one of the juveniles who was a relative of the Florida man. 

When the package attached to the back of one of the packages was opened with a pocket knife, Miller testified the package “fell off into the floor and white powder came out.” 

Miller testified Stafford, the two juveniles and Sheriff’s Department staff were moved out of the area while the site of the powder spill was cordoned off. 

After safety measures were taken, Miller testified that Stafford stated to him that the powder was baking soda and the aluminum foil it was wrapped in came from her residence. 

Criminal Court Judge Steve Bebb accepted Stafford’s guilty plea Tuesday and sentenced her to one year probation after spending 10 days in jail, and a $300 fine, according to court documents. Stafford was given credit for having already served 14 days in jail. 

Friday, June 07, 2002

By STACEY GAUTIER 
The Express-Times 

PALMER TWP. -- District Justice Ralph Litzenberger on Thursday ordered a 45-year-old U.S. Postal Service employee to stand trial on terroristic threats and disorderly conduct charges. 

Lisa Kocher of the 400 block of Briarwood Drive, Bethlehem Township, allegedly put white powder, a traffic citation and a personal check into a suspicious envelope mailed to District Justice Joseph Barner in Bethlehem Township. 

Litzenberger dismissed a harassment charge against Kocher. 

District court secretary Theresa Stocklas said the envelope, which arrived April 4, caught her attention because it had several upside down American flag stamps and tape around all the edges and was addressed to "Komrade District Justice Officer." 

The envelope contained a white substance that "felt granular," and left a granular residue on her fingers, Stocklas said. 

The powdery substance did not resemble baking powder, Stocklas testified. 

Kocher had told police she put a mixture of baking soda and cigarette ashes into the envelope to mask the smell after her cat had urinated on the citation. 

Stocklas gave the suspicious envelope to Barner, who held it up to the light and could "see there was some kind of substance beside papers in there." Barner instructed his secretary to call the Northampton County 911 Center, which then notified Colonial Regional Police. 

Colonial Regional Police Detective Charles Horvath said the envelope contained Kocher's personal check, the traffic citation and a white, crystal-like substance. "Bribe for Freedom/Life in Amerika," was written on the check, Horvath said. 

Horvath said he sent the substance to a state police laboratory for analysis, and the lab determined the substance was not anthrax. 

Late last year, the Postal Service and other mail handlers across the country were gripped in a nationwide panic after powdered anthrax was found in mail sent to federal lawmakers and media outlets. 

Kocher is free on 10 percent of $10,000 bail. 

Reporter Stacey Gautier can be reached at 610-258-7171 or by e-mail at seg@express-times.com.

By JAMES BAKER

Portsmouth Bureau Chief

PORTSMOUTH — A Brentwood man indicted by a federal grand jury several months ago for allegedly writing a death threat letter targeting President Bush will stand trial Sept. 3 in U.S. District Court in Concord.

Elijah Peter Wallace, 18, formerly of Old Danville Road, entered a plea of innocence at his arraignment March 20 to one count of threats against the president of the United States.

Wallace, who could face up to five years in prison if convicted, is being held without bail in the Rockingham County House of Corrections pending trial.

The indictment alleges Wallace wrote the letter to Bush from jail Feb. 16 and mailed it to television station WMUR, who forwarded it to the U.S. Secret Service’s Manchester office.

In an excerpt of the letter addressed "To whom it may concern," Wallace allegedly wrote:

"If I had my way I would take a 30 ot (sic) to President Bush’s head at point blank range. He must die, for he has declared war on all antigovernment groups and he is my enemy.

"Blow up 1100 (sic) pennsalvania ave. for fun in the middle of the night. Everything in this pathetic government must be executed."

Wallace initially drew the attention of authorities on Jan. 4, when Fremont police responded to a complaint call from a man alleging someone had broken into a vacant home he owned on Bean Road.

When police arrived at the scene, they found Wallace holed up in a closet armed with a flare gun and two knives.

During questioning, Wallace allegedly told authorities he had recently sent letters containing anthrax to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle at his Washington, D.C., office and to the New Hampshire Division of Motor Vehicles in Concord as well as two other businesses in Kingston and Danville, according to Fremont police.

Wallace then led police to another vacant home on Route 107 in Kingston, where they discovered a bag of white, powdery material that turned out to be drywall, and four sealed letters addressed to Exeter High School, Carriage Town News in Kingston, the Seacoast Learning Collaborative in Kingston, and one to an unnamed individual.

Each letter contained white powder and notes making reference to anthrax, according to the indictments. Wallace was charged with one count of Class A felony burglary, four Class A misdemeanor counts of criminal threatening, and one Class B misdemeanor count of criminal mischief.

Portsmouth Bureau Chief James Baker can be reached at 431-4888, Ext. 5041, or jfbaker@fosters.com

San Diego Union Tribune & ASSOCIATED PRESS

June 10, 2002

LOS ANGELES – A Northern California man pleaded guilty Monday to sending the IRS a phony anthrax letter during last year's terrorism scare.

Israel Rodriguez, 25, of Richmond entered the plea in federal court to a charge of trying to intimidate an employee of the Internal Revenue Service, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

He faces up to three years in prison when he is sentenced on Sept. 9.

Authorities said Rodriguez sent a letter to an IRS post office box in Los Angeles last Dec. 18. It contained profanity and stated: "I am not paying your ... taxes, you are not getting my money anymore. P.S. Here is anthraxs."

The envelope contained a white powder that turned out to be baking powder.

The FBI and Treasury Department agents traced the letter to Rodriguez.

The incident was one of several anthrax hoaxes in California.

An Oakland man is awaiting trial on a charge of threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction after he allegedly mailed an anthrax hoax letter to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Dean Wilber, 33, was arrested last month. He allegedly sent a threatening letter in December from Wyoming while on a bus trip. The letter contained a white powder that was found to be talcum powder.

The letter caused an anthrax scare at a Cheyenne, Wyo., post office, where it burst during processing. Workers at the facility were treated with antibiotics.

Find this article at: http://www.uniontrib.com/news/state/20020610-1447-ca-anthraxhoax.html 

By Ray Henry, 6/13/2002 

Employees were evacuated yesterday from the governor's office and from the Boston Herald newsroom after they received letters that contained a white powdery substance that the writer claimed was anthrax, authorities said. 

The substance proved not to be anthrax or any of the five other hazardous materials that the Fire Department tested it for at the sites, said spokesman Steve MacDonald.

The governor's office letter was opened by an employee around 9:15 a.m. The office was
 temporarily evacuated while emergency officials examined the letter, said Jim Borghesani, a spokesman for Acting Governor Jane Swift. 

The writer claimed to be an inmate at the Suffolk House of Correction, he said. 

The second letter was addressed to Boston Herald reporter Tom Mashberg, who opened the envelope in the Herald Square newsroom around 5:30 p.m. and discovered a white powder, employees said. The newsroom was evacuated for a little more than an hour. 

While no anthrax cases have been reported this year, the FBI is still investigating the cases from last fall when the Ames strain of the virus was sent through the US mail system, killing five people. 

This story ran on page B2 of the Boston Globe on 6/13/2002.

By Scott Fusaro sfusaro@keynoter.com
Marathon, Florida

More than half a year after anthrax scares shut down post offices and government buildings, a white powdery substance fell out of an envelope addressed to an elderly Marathon resident Saturday.

The envelope, said Virginia Wallin, who opened it, was a Blue Cross/Blue Shield envelope addressed to her husband, and contained a routine letter from the insurance company.

But when she slit the envelope with a letter opener, a white powder her husband described as "granular" fell onto the table.

"I looked at Bruce and said, ‘What do we do now?’ " said Wallin.

She turned off the fans and covered the powder with a plate so it wouldn’t blow through the room, and called the police.

Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputies and Marathon Fire Rescue personnel arrived. Clad in masks and gloves, they removed the powder while advising the Wallins to shower with bleach.

"Everybody was absolutely polite and wonderful," said Wallin. "They were all very nice and very polite and very efficient."

Police officials said the substance was turned over to the Monroe County Fire Marshal’s Office to be destroyed, while wondering why the Wallins would receive such a package.

Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Becky Herrin said the Wallins are a "couple that doesn’t have any reason to be a target," and police Capt. Bob Peryam said "the chances of them being a target of a terrorist or biohazard [attack] is slim and none."

Virginia Wallin offered a similar assessment.

"I think it’s just somebody having fun," she said.

Leesville woman pleads guilty to Anthrax hoax

By staff reports

LAFAYETTE -- U.S. Attorney Donald W. Washington announced that Shajuana T. Bell, 23, of Leesville pled guilty to a one count indictment charging her with aiding and abetting in the crime of threatening the use of a weapon of mass destruction.

Bell and Catherine Howard were apprehended for calling the Fort Polk Post Exchange and announcing that Anthrax was in the building. Bell's plea took place in e U.S. District Court before Judge Richard T. Haik. Bell was arrested on Nov. 27 by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Sentencing will take place on a later date.

"This Anthrax hoax frightened everyone involved and caused a massive response by military and civilian authorities," Washington said. "The Fort Polk Post Exchange and its employees suffered through the decontamination and medical treatment processes, and lost significant money and time due to the criminal conduct of these two defendants.  These defendants committed a federal crime and exercised extremely poor judgment. They called in the Anthrax threat because they wanted the day off. Maybe next time they'll do what other folks do, call in sick or take a vacation day."

On Oct. 30, a phone call was made to the Post Exchange from an individual who stated that there was Anthrax in the building and that they needed to evacuate. The PX was immediately evacuated and 27 people were decontaminated, sent to a hospital for observation and put on antibiotics as a precautionary measure.

The PX was closed for three days. Subsequent tests revealed there was no Anthrax in the building. The government's response to the hoax and the loss to the PX amounted to approximately $250,000.

The phone call was made by Howard, who pled guilty in May. Bell provided the calling card used to make the call and the phone number to the Fort Polk Post Exchange.

The FBI and Fort Polk Criminal Investigation Division's joint investigation resulted in the criminal complaints against and subsequent arrests of Bell and Howard, both of whom are former employees at the Burger King Express located within the PX.

The maximum punishment Bell may receive is a fine of not more than $250,000, a term of imprisonment up to life in federal prison and a term of supervised release of not more than five years after serving a term of imprisonment. Sentencing in federal court is governed by the United States Sentencing Guidelines and parole has been abolished in the federal system.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Lake Charles Resident Agency. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Larry J. Regan.

By Mike Goens 
Senior Editor - The (Northwest Alabama) Times Daily
June 19, 2002

FLORENCE - A Rogersville woman was arrested Tuesday and accused of sending letters containing white powder to a Florence lawyer and a bankruptcy judge in Decatur.

Myra Jo Bryant, 43, is expected to undergo a mental examination as a result of the arrest, courthouse officials said Tuesday.

She is charged with mailing threatening communications, a federal offense punishable by five years in prison and a fine.

The arrest came exactly two weeks after the letters were sent to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Jack Caddell and lawyer Michele Hatcher.

Bryant was arrested shortly after federal agents searched her residence at 3991 Lauderdale 26 on Tuesday morning. FBI agents also questioned her.

The letters contained white powder and a threatening message, authorities said June 4, when the letters were discovered. 

Although three people in Hatcher's office, including Hatcher, spent a night in Shoals Hospital as a precautionary measure, tests revealed that the powder was not anthrax, as some feared.

The substance has not been verified but will be tested before the case against Bryant goes to court. Authorities say they expect the substance to be identified as some form of rat or plant poison.

FBI agent Don Yarbrough said the investigation quickly focused on Bryant. 

He declined to elaborate on evidence linking her to the case.

FBI agents in Florence and Huntsville investigated the case.

Sources said Bryant admitted during the interview with FBI agents that she sent the letters as part of an ongoing dispute with her ex-husband.

Bryant divorced about three years ago and sent the letters in an attempt to get her ex-husband's wife in trouble, the sources said. His current wife has a pending case in bankruptcy court and is represented by Hatcher, who specializes in bankruptcy cases. The sources said Bryant apparently tried to make it appear that her ex-husband's current wife sent the letters to intimidate the judge. Bryant apparently figured that would lead to charges being filed against the woman, which would ultimately clear the way for her to return to her ex-husband.

Attempts to contact Hatcher on Tuesday were unsuccessful. 

Her office is in the First Southern Bank Building downtown.

The building was evacuated when the letters were found. 

Employees were allowed to return to work the next day, when authorities determined the threat was a hoax.

Courthouse officials said several police reports have been filed during the past three years involving the Bryants. 

Most of the complaints involved accusations of harassment.

By JIM DALGLEISH / H-P City Editor

BENTON HARBOR -- Powder falling from an anonymous letter has put Carvel Roseburgh on edge.

Even more unsettling, the Benton Township man said, is the apparent indifference postal and law enforcement officials have for his predicament.

He said he took the letter, which arrived June 13, to Benton Harbor police, but was told to take it to the Benton Harbor Post Office. He said postal workers told him to take it back to the police department, where officers said they couldn't do anything with it.

From there, he said, he went to the FBI office in St. Joseph. He said the man staffing the office told him there was nothing the agency could do.

He said he then took the letter, which he had sealed in a locking sandwich bag, to the state police post in Bridgman, where he was told nothing could be done there.

"If something is wrong with this letter, why should I have to go through all this trouble?" Roseburgh, 36, said. "It's probably the same thing that happened before (Sept. 11). Nobody took these (possible warnings) seriously."

The letter, addressed to his mother's home in Benton Harbor, comes several months after anthrax-tainted letters were linked to several deaths across the country and forced closure of the U.S. Senate office building.

An anthrax-threat letter to The Herald-Palladium in October brought out the Berrien County Sheriff's Department's hazardous materials team. No contaminants were found at the newspaper, and the FBI investigation turned up no suspects.

Roseburgh's letter was postmarked Santa Ana, Calif., and it contained a newspaper advertisement from the Grand Rapids Press. The advertisement announced new ways to earn money from the federal government.

Attached to the advertisement was a handwritten note saying: "Carvel, you gotta see this - J."

Roseburgh, a meter reader for Aquila Inc., formerly Michigan Gas Utilities, said he knows no one in California or Grand Rapids who goes by "J," or has a name starting with that letter.

As of Tuesday, Roseburgh was reporting no ill effects.

Susan Pfeifer, manager of consumer affairs for the Postal Service's Greater Michigan District in Grand Rapids, said she has seen similar letters in her mail.   She said she doesn't recall any powder in the envelopes, but said they included hand-written notes and advertising appeals.

Pfeifer said most post offices are not equipped to handle hazardous materials. It's a job for local authorities, she said.

She said postal workers encourage people who see powder falling from envelopes to immediately put down the letter and call local authorities.

She said the last thing a person should do is carry around a potentially contaminated object. Persons who handle such mail are urged to wash their hands for more than three minutes in soap and water, she said.

FBI Special Agent Dawn Clenney said the agency's policy since last year's anthrax letters is to let local law enforcement handle the initial complaint. If local police find the threat significant, they can then contact the FBI.

State police Lt. Joseph Zangaro, commander of the Bridgman post, said the post's front door has since last fall carried a sign telling visitors to not bring in potentially contaminated mail. State police urge recipients to set down the letters and call local police.

The Berrien County Sheriff's Department offers the same advice, said Sgt. Mike Bradley, coordinator of the Berrien County Sheriff's Department's Emergency Management Division.

He said the department's hazardous materials team is the only agency in Berrien County equipped to handle such letters. However, the local department has to make the initial threat assessment.

Benton Harbor police did not return calls seeking comment.

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS, Associated Press Writer 

SPOKANE, Washington - A man was arrested for allegedly building a homemade biological weapon with a lethal toxin from the castor plant, the FBI said.

In court papers, FBI agents alleged Wednesday that Kenneth Olsen may have intended to poison his wife with the toxin after having an affair with another woman.

FBI agent Norm Brown said there was no known connection between Olsen and terrorists and there was no sign of a bomb in his house.

Olsen, 47, was allegedly making ricin, a deadly extract of castor beans. Traces of ricin have been  found by U.S. troops in Afghanistan at suspected al-Qaida biological weapons sites, Brown said.

Olsen's attorney, John Clark, said his client is innocent of any crime.

"He is a Scout master, active in his church and a computer and Internet hobbyist," Clark said. "I assume that 9-11 has caused the federal government to look at everything as if it was a real threat."

The investigation began after Olsen's co-workers found items at his workstation at the Agilent Technologies Inc. plant indicating he was plotting a homicide, documents showed.

Olsen, who had been fired from the plant in August, was trying to determine how much ricin was needed to kill a 150-pound person, the approximate weight of his wife, court documents said.

Agilent manager also found documents related to ricin, glass jars, test tubes and castor beans, plus cards and letters from a woman named Debra Davis, court documents showed. Davis was interviewed by FBI agents and said they had an affair starting in June 1999 that lasted until they broke up last July.

According to court documents, Olsen admitted searching the Internet for information on explosives and poisons pertaining to Boy Scout projects he was researching.

Ricin is twice as deadly as cobra venom. In very small doses, it causes the human digestive tract to convulse — hence the laxative effect of castor oil. But in larger doses, ricin causes diarrhea so severe that victims can die of shock from massive fluid and electrolyte loss.

Man arrested in Alpine anthrax hoax

ALPINE — The Sul Ross University Police Department and the West Texas Joint Terrorism Task Force announced the arrest Thursday of Richard Villalba Portilla, 43, of Alpine in connection with an anthrax hoax. 

Portillo is charged with conveying false information about a crime and making false statements, according to the FBI. If convicted, Portillo faces a maximum punishment of five years imprisonment for each charge.

The arrest was a result of an investigation into an anthrax hoax at Sul Ross in October 2001, the FBI said. An envelope containing a powdery substance was found in a mail slot at the school, prompting deployment of emergency response equipment and personnel.

Eight months after threatening Arsenal Island guards with what he said was a “truck full of anthrax,” Michael Doherty wiped tears from his eyes, expressed regret and faced a stern judge who did not mince words on what he thought about Doherty’s actions. 

Michael Doherty, 31, told U.S. District Judge Michael Mihm during his sentencing Friday in U.S. District Court in Rock Island that he was sorry for what he did before he was sentenced to 30 months of probation, including 60 days in a work-release program. 

Judge Mihm reminded Doherty of the seriousness of his offense during the sentencing. Even though he will not face time in a federal prison because of the time he spent after his arrest in the Rock Island County Jail and on home confinement, Mihm wanted to at least place Doherty in confinement at the work-release program, he said. 

“This was a big deal. This was a very big deal,” Mihm said. “The timing on this could not have been worse.” 

Doherty stopped at the visitors center to get a guest pass Oct. 29, during the height of the anthrax scare, and became irritated when a guard asked for his driver’s license, officials said. He allegedly told the guard he “had a truck full of anthrax,” then repeated the statement after being told that his threats were not funny. 

The guard issued Doherty a pass and allowed him onto the island, officials say. But the guard later worried the statement may not have been a joke and called Arsenal police. Doherty was stopped and his truck searched. No anthrax was found. He later was arrested by the FBI. 

Doherty’s record includes burglary, trespass, marijuana possession and delivery, domestic assault, obstruction of justice, theft and driving on a suspended or revoked license. 

In one incident detailed in court Friday, Doherty threatened mall security guards, saying he would bring a machine gun back to the mall after he was detained for disruptive behavior. 

Jennifer Gusman, Doherty’s girlfriend, testified that Doherty has been sober, taking his medications and bringing his anger under control since his arrest. 

“He’s been a lot more patient with himself and others,” she said. 

Doherty’s attorney, George Taseff, requested probation for his client. “Michael had to reach the end of the line,” he said. “This man’s enormous progress should not be interrupted.” 

Peoria police may have found anthrax

PEORIA -- Police believed they may have found anthrax at a Peoria eyeglass shop Saturday.

A hazardous materials team was called to Eyeglass World on Brandywine around 1:30 p.m. Saturday after workers called the police because seven out of 10 employees felt sick and complained of dizziness.

Police said they were suspicious of a letter received by one of the employees. The letter is on its way to the FBI in Springfield and will be tested for anthrax.

Police also found something in a trash can but would not comment on what was found.

By Indrani Sen
STAFF WRITER - Newsday

July 3, 2002

Suffolk County Health Department officials yesterday said they were "99 percent sure" the patients treated for brown recluse spider bites at John T. Mather Memorial Hospital did not have cutaneous anthrax.

"I can't say it's 100 percent," said Dr. Patricia Dillon, the department's director of communicable diseases. "I'm never confident enough to say 100 percent. ... But there's no clinical evidence of anthrax, and testing to date [at the hospital] has not indicated any presence of anthrax."

Officials at the Port Jefferson hospital, meanwhile, reaffirmed their diagnoses of the recluse spider bites in five people treated there since May. Some of the cutaneous anthrax cases last fall initially were misdiagnosed as spider bites.

The health department plans to draw blood from the last four patients treated at Mather Memorial and has asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to test them for anthrax antibodies.

"This is just to be extra-cautious," Dillon said, explaining that her department has had little experience with anthrax. "We're asking for their expertise on whether these people could be tested for convalescent anthrax, just to get rid of that one percent doubt that's in the back of my mind."

Also, Mather officials spoke at a news conference yesterday afternoon in their Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Unit, at which they disagreed with entomologists who say brown recluse spiders do not exist on Long Island. Though no spiders were recovered in any of the cases, doctors showed pictures of brown recluse spider bites and said they closely match the wounds they have seen recently. In anthrax cases, they said, the wound has a hard covering, which was not found in any of the five cases.

"I would say the odds of it being anthrax are exceedingly low," said Dr. Kenneth Hirsch, an emergency room physician and assistant director of the hyperbaric unit, adding that routine blood cultures done for the patients did not show the presence of any bacteria, as there would have been if anthrax was present.

Two of the hospital's patients said they were just glad they're doing better. Achille Gabriellini, 43, of Mastic said something - he's not sure what - attacked his left thigh.

Gabriellini first noticed the lump last Tuesday. At first he thought his fever was sun-poisoning from being out over the weekend. Last Wednesday, he came to Mather feverish and disoriented.

"I was in pretty bad shape," he said.

The wound is now almost entirely healed.

John King, 43, a letter carrier from Moriches, first noticed what he thought was a mosquito bite behind his right knee on May 11. A day later, it had become an open wound the size of a nickel. The following morning, it was the size of a quarter, he had a fever, he couldn't walk and the pain had gone to his groin. He was admitted to Mather and stayed there seven days, getting
hyperbaric treatments twice a day.

"I don't know if mine was a brown recluse, but it was definitely something," he said. "Something's out there. It's scary." 

Copyright © 2002, Newsday, Inc. 

NO ONE EVER BELIEVED STEPHEN MICHAEL LONG,PERHAPS THEY SHOULD HAVE LISTENED.

Louis Rom 
Posted on July 3, 2002
The Times of Acadiana

The seeds of mistrust were planted early in Stephen Michael Long, the 37-year-old Rayne man accused of mailing more than 200 letters in April containing bomb threats and a white powder that turned out to be baby powder, not anthrax.

Long claims he was molested at age 11 by a Houma karate instructor in 1976 and that his life has spiraled out of control ever since. 

"I would consider the first 10 years of my life as very normal," he wrote in an 83-page autobiography in the late 1980s.

Long wrote often about being raped by his instructor, about suffering guilt over a girlfriend's abortion, about fears that Long the victim might become Long the perpetrator. And, almost without fail, the doctors and lawyers who interviewed him over the years believed little, if anything, of his unwieldy tales.

He also claims that while being treated for depression and suicidal tendencies stemming from the '76 rape, he was molested again - this time at a mental health facility in Acadiana.

Neither of the alleged molestations were ever prosecuted. But one thing is certain: Stephen Michael Long, the former Michael Brunet, did come into contact with a man named Wayne Hunt in late July of 1976, when Brunet was 11.

According to a lawsuit filed in 1977 against Hunt's employer, the Terrebonne Parish Parks Department, Brunet was raped by Hunt on a boat named the Sandpiper that was moored behind a pool hall on the Intercoastal Canal. Days later, Brunet's good friend from Lacache Middle School in Chauvin was also raped by Hunt, according to the lawsuit.

Brunet's family went to the sheriff days after their son told them of the molestation, according to the lawsuit. But investigators did not believe him and Hunt was never interviewed, let alone arrested or prosecuted.

At the time of the complaint, Hunt, then 30 years old, was on probation for sex abuse involving a minor in Sacramento, Calif. He had already been arrested at least nine times and convicted three times. 

His subpoena to show up for court in the case stemming from his alleged abuse of Long was mailed to a federal prison in Atlanta, where Hunt was serving time on an unrelated kidnapping charge (Hunt was convicted in 1977 of taking a Louisiana boy across state lines into Illinois).

Today, Hunt, 55, is serving a maximum of 25 years at Orleans Correctional Facility in Albion, N.Y., about an hour north of Buffalo. His current sentence stems from 20 convictions, including nine for sodomy and two for kidnapping.

The Brunet's $225,000 lawsuit against the parks department, the sheriff and the parish coroner was settled in 1981 for $10,000. 

Defense attorneys claimed Brunet's parents were "contributorily negligent" because they allowed their son to "stay out all hours of the night" with Hunt. They also suggested that young Michael was partially responsible for the rape of his friend because he failed to immediately report his encounter with Hunt.

A Dark Journey

In the 20 years that have since passed, doctors have diagnosed Stephen Michael Long as suffering from anxiety and depression, experiencing psychotic and neurotic tendencies and enduring fits of paranoia. There is little indication in medical records that they believed Long had actually been molested.

For years, Long has stuttered and experienced such nervousness that he recalls his hair falling out in clumps.

At one point, his mental anguish was so debilitating, he says he forgot how to read.

"I lost the ability to read and write for a long time and I gradually started teaching myself again," he wrote.

The mother of his childhood friend who was allegedly raped by Hunt says Long was a deeply troubled young man.

"He was a very nervous kind of little boy - fearful of everything," said the woman, who spoke with The Times on the condition that she remain anonymous.

"My son is doing fine. He's got a great job, a great family. I don't want him to have to relive this all over again," she says.

The woman says Long's mother, Shirley Faye, was constantly talking about how she wanted revenge against the sheriff and the doctors for not taking her son's abuse complaint seriously. Long's mother, now divorced and using her maiden name, Jones, would not comment for this story.

The woman says Michael Brunet stuttered when she first met him shortly after the alleged rapes took place. 

"A fear would come to him and he would stutter," she says

When told of the current charges facing Long, she says, "I just feel sorry for him, I really do. I think he was living a fantasy of revenge." 

Later, Long would tell one of his physicians that he had memories of possibly molesting a child, then claims to have told doctors the child's name, where and when it happened. It's unclear if any molestation occurred or if authorities ever followed up with his story. Prior to his arrest earlier this month, Long had never been arrested in Lafayette or Terrebonne parish.

As a young adult, Long struggled to gain independence from his mother, whom he described in court documents as overbearing and manipulative.

By his own admission, and by numerous doctors' observations, Long wrestled with his sexual orientation at an early age, struggling with the possibility that he might be gay or bisexual. In the mid to late 1980s, he hung around the gay scene in Lafayette and reports having a boyfriend with whom he shared an apartment. 

Sometime around 1983, Long met Jordan Henry, a Lafayette man, at Frank's, a popular Downtown gay bar. Henry, who now is an ordained minister and heads up a nondenominational gay church, says Long was very insecure, often depressed and in need of constant reassurance. But he also describes him as quite intelligent, thoughtful and hard-working.

"He wanted to be a lawyer," Henry says, adding that his room was always flush with law books and reams of papers. 

When Henry met him, Long was living with his mother and brother across the street from the Lafayette Parish Library and just beginning to explore the gay scene. Long asked Henry to introduce him around the community.

"They didn't accept him," says Henry. "He was weird."

Long was skittish, says Henry, adding that he often embellished the truth, sometimes to the point that his stories seemed unbelievable.

"He puts a bit of the truth, and a bit of a lie, and makes it legend," Henry says.

Henry remembers one other thing about Long.

"He was always bitching about doctors," Henry says. "Always angry at someone. He was never violent, but you could just feel the rage. I could always tell there was an underlying resentment."

Harboring Ill Feelings

In court documents, Long voiced resentment toward doctors and lawyers, law enforcement and the government. And his mother.

Long says he began to stutter soon after Hunt molested him, but doctors who examined him in the mid 1980s repeatedly noted that the stuttering peaked when he was discussing his relationship troubles with his mother.

In one medical entry, a doctor wrote that Long complained his mother "tried to manipulate him with her illness" and that he was looking into moving into a dormitory on campus. 

Yet it appears the independence Long so eagerly sought often turned out to be just as problematic as his relationship with his mother. Long was hospitalized at least four times in his late teens and early 20s with anxiety disorders and complained frequently about being unable to handle the pressure of school, work and a rocky relationship with a girlfriend he met in high school. 

Sometime in the early 1980s, Long quit high school and went to a trade school to become a bookkeeper. He later earned a GED and attended University of Southwest Louisiana, first to study computer science, later to major in criminal justice. He received a degree in 1990.

Between 1983 and 1985, Long was hospitalized four times for psychological problems and treated on an outpatient basis more than 40 times.

Henry says he would lose contact with Long for months at a time, but never knew of his hospitalizations.

Suffering Started Early

It appears Long was first hospitalized as early as 1978 when he was 13 years old.  Doctors said he was experiencing an "anxious reaction to adolescence" and was plagued with paranoia.

He wrote often of struggling to make friends and meet people. As a teenager and into his early 20s, he worked several jobs at fast food restaurants, including stints at Popeyes and El Torito's in Lafayette. 

His parents, Tom and Shirley Brunet, separated in 1981 when he was 16. Shirley took Michael, and his brother, James, to Bastrop, then to Lafayette, while Tom remained in Chauvin and later remarried.

Long told doctors he felt like he was recovering from his earlier sexual abuse, but that their breakup brought on another bout of depression. A year later, doctors said Long experienced "a psychotic break with reality," though details were not available. 

In 1983, Dr. W.A. Hawkins said that "under enough stress, this individual could easily become psychotic again" and recommended chemotherapy and long-term psychotherapy.

That was the year Long told a doctor he had memories of possibly molesting a child.  He was prescribed Vistaril, an anti-anxiety medication. 

Over the years, Long told several doctors he was fearful "of being around" children. "I had a fear of me attacking children," he told one doctor in 1985. "I just couldn't understand what would make someone do what they did to me. I was scared. I was just scared that I would black out and do something like that."

In 1984, Long told doctors he would often get extremely jealous of his girlfriend and suspected she was cheating on him. He said he sought help because he was "afraid he would hurt her." That same year doctors deemed him suicidal.

That year, Long entered USL and shared an apartment with his girlfriend. In 1985, according to Long, his girlfriend got pregnant. She decided to have an abortion, a decision that Long says plagued him for some time. 

"She did it without telling him," says Henry, who met Long's girlfriend a couple of times. 

Long claims to have been wracked with guilt over the decision and said he experienced nightmares - or as doctors described it, "fleeting hallucinations" - of "a deceased baby coming to him." Soon after the abortion, the couple split and Long became deeply depressed. He was hospitalized, at his own request, after experiencing "suicidal and homicidal" feelings, doctors noted. 

In 1986, Michael Brunet changed his name to Stephen Michael Long, after the man he says fathered him - Huey P. Long. He says this Huey P. Long is not the famed former governor, but a Lafayette man born in 1932.

Long makes no mention, at least in public records, of why he chose to erase the name of the man who adopted him as a 4-year-old.

It would be years before a coterie of Lafayette attorneys would come to know Stephen Michael Long.

Malpractice Lawsuit

Elicits Threats from Long

In 1988, at the age of 24, Long filed his first of two medical malpractice suits against Acadiana mental health institutions. Long alleged in the lawsuits that doctors repeatedly misdiagnosed him and gave him the wrong medication. He complained also about mental health physicians releasing "confidential information" to physicians to whom it was not relevant.

In an 83-page document, which he entered into the 1988 lawsuit's file, Long predicted a dangerous future for himself.

The document, which he titled, "David v. Goliath Once Again," starts out with a promise that Long will become "one of the most dynamic, untrackable serial killers or terrorists" of all time, then spirals into a redundant lament about his physical and mental illness, doctors who were constantly failing him, lawyers who were trying to defeat him and several other authority figures who Long blamed for his problems. 

He wrote that he respects only serial killers and terrorists, such as Henry Lee Lucas, the famed serial killer of the 1970s and 1980s who confessed to hundreds of murders.

Gary McGoffin, a lawyer for the defense in the 1988 suit, described Long as seriously disturbed.

"All of us knew that he was a deeply troubled young man," McGoffin says today. "We were considering talking to his mother about having him committed."

The lawyers were so disturbed by Long's behavior that they brought Mace canisters to the conference room where they deposed Long - "so if he ever did anything we'd be ready," McGoffin says. The attorneys also hired a bodyguard, whom they identified to Long as a fellow attorney, to sit beside Long in case he tried to hurt anyone, McGoffin says.

Long represented himself in both suits. Though they were both dismissed, a lawyer for the defense complimented him on his articulate and thorough work, asking if he had secured help from an attorney in drafting the papers.

It would be more than 10 years before McGoffin ever saw or heard of Long again. But not long enough for him to forget the troubled person now believed to be behind the 200-plus menacing missives mailed in April.

"When I saw the picture in the paper, I was convinced that they had the right guy," says McGoffin. 

Awaiting a Court Date

Long was arrested June 20, after a series of e-mails he sent to CNN and KLFY news anchor Blue Rolfes helped authorities track him down. In those e-mails, Long threatened Fire Chief Robert Benoit and FBI Supervisory Agent Rick McHenry. 

Benoit says Long never contacted him directly and can only assume that he was targeted simply as the head officer of the unit that was investigating an arson at Long's Duson Street residence.

Last week, federal judge Michael Hill ruled that Long would be held without bail, saying he was a flight risk and a risk to society.

His mother, brother, and wife - Cindy LeDay, whom he married in 1998 - spoke on his behalf, but to no avail.

Long faces 78 charges, including multiple counts of transmitting threats in interstate commerce, sending threatening communications through the U.S. mail and threatening to use weapons of mass destruction. He could face life in prison. A court date has not been set.

Long's attorney David Willard has not commented on whether he would use the insanity defense to keep Long from prison. 

Henry says he can understand what would cause Long to act out, but says that doesn't remove his responsibility from the act. He wishes that more people would have just listened to him.

"He was telling the truth," Henry says. "And nobody ever believed him."

Louis Rom is public life editor for The Times. Phone him at 237-3560, ext. 118, or e-mail him at louisrom@yahoo.com.

Man pleads guilty to using Ajax in anthrax 'joke'

PECOS (AP) - A Sul Ross State University employee has admitted responsibility for an anthrax hoax at the school last year that started when a Halloween prank using Ajax cleanser got out of hand.

Richard Villalba Portillo pleaded guilty in a U.S. District Court in Pecos on Monday to two charges of making false statements about the prank, the Pecos Enterprise reported in its Tuesday editions.

The maximum sentence for each charge is five years in prison. However, Portillo's guilty plea was part of an agreement that would require him to submit to the maximum amount of probation in lieu of jail time. He has not yet been sentenced.

Portillo was arrested in June after being notified that he had failed a lie detector test. He had denied knowledge of the incident in a previous interview with an FBI agent.

According to court records and an FBI report, Portillo, wearing work gloves, joked with the school's building maintenance supervisor on Oct. 31 about being the "anthrax inspector."

After the conversation, Portillo grabbed an envelope from the mailroom and went to a nearby dormitory where he placed some Ajax into the envelope. He then put it back in the mail room.

Victor Romero, Sul Ross supervisor of General Services, found the envelope and the Alpine Volunteer Fire Department was called to the scene.

University police investigated the incident and the FBI was called in to investigate the possibility that the material was anthrax. Laboratory tests showed the material wasn't toxic.

The hoax came after anthrax incidents in Florida and the northeast, which resulted in the deaths of five people and the closing of several buildings, including a Senate office building and the main U.S. Postal Service facility in Washington D.C.

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) - A Pennsylvania woman has been convicted of trying to mail anthrax hoax letters to government officials, including President Bush, at the height of last fall's anthrax scare.

The hoax letters, which authorities say actually contained cornstarch, forced the closure of a post office in Nanticoke for several hours on Oct. 25. They also halted operations in the mail room at the Luzerne County Courthouse.

Rosemary Zavrel, 58, of Pittston, was convicted by a jury Friday of mailing threatening letters, aiding and abetting in mailing threatening letters and making false statements to the police.

Authorities said she and her former roommate, Emily Forman, mailed 17 letters filled with cornstarch to Bush, local judges and other authorities in an attempt to frame two teens who allegedly picked on Zavrel's son.

The envelopes were marked with the return addresses of the two boys, authorities said.

Forman pleaded guilty in February to taking part in the crime. Zavrel is to be sentenced Oct. 10; the maximum sentence for each charge is five years in prison.

"The letters in this case were no joke. In that time in our history, each one of those letters was an evil, malicious threat," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jack Garganus said.

Five people died and more than a dozen were sickened last fall after someone sent anthrax-laced letters through the mail to politicians and news organizations. No arrests have been made.

 By JERRY BIER
 THE FRESNO BEE 

 FRESNO -- If you pay a traffic ticket by mailing your check with a little dab of cornstarch, can you be charged with sending a threatening communication?

Federal prosecutors say you can if it was at the height of the post-Sept. 11 national anthrax scare.

And a federal judge agreed Friday, convicting 36-year-old Bret Raymer of Modesto on one felony count of mailing a threatening communication.

The envelope arrived at the Modesto parking citations office in early November. Inside was Raymer's $15 fine and some cornstarch, authorities said, though no one knew what it was at the time.

An employee told authorities that when the powdery substance fell out of the envelope, she thought it was anthrax and "felt like she was going to have a heart attack and that she could not stop shaking."

Modesto police tracked down Raymer, and he said he was upset over getting the ticket, Detective Dodge Hendee said.

After being convicted in U.S. District Court here, Raymer went against his attorney's advice and spoke with a reporter. Raymer repeated his earlier comments that he is "more than sorry. I'm feeling really stupid."

Judge Robert E. Coyle decided the case quickly. Raymer agreed to a court trial, in which the judge and not a jury decides guilt or innocence.

In his ruling, Coyle cited his earlier refusal to throw the case out of court. Raymer argued then that he should not have been charged with mailing a threatening communication because the indictment against him did not allege a written threat and the envelope was not addressed to a specific person.

Coyle agreed with prosecutors that "a reasonable recipient, receiving a letter containing a powdery substance during the nationwide anthrax scare, would interpret the communication as a threat."

The judge also agreed that the person who opened the envelope was the one who was threatened.

"The defendant should not be able to avoid prosecution for sending that envelope simply because the envelope was addressed to a municipality, instead of an actual 'person,'" Coyle said.

Marc C. Ament, an assistant federal defender representing Raymer, said he will file an appeal after Raymer's sentencing, scheduled for Sept. 30, and added that the case will become a test case.

The crime is punishable by a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The U.S. attorney's office in Fresno is prosecuting two other anthrax-hoax cases from last fall. Both of those involve envelopes marked with threats or the word "anthrax" on the outside.

Posted on 07/14/02 06:30:09 
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/3571344p-4600628c.html

A former chemistry teacher who sent hoax anthrax mail to the Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan has been jailed for two-and-a-half years. 

Nicholas Roberts, 50, posted four packages containing white powder at the height of the anthrax scares following last September's terrorist attacks in the US. 

As well as Rhodri Morgan, the chemistry graduate posted one of the envelopes containing white flour to Welsh travel writer Jan Morris. 

In February, unemployed Roberts, from the Riverside area of Cardiff, was found guilty of attempting to cause a public nuisance by sending packages to public figures. 

The bachelor, who has an earlier conviction for throwing eggs at the Queen's car during a royal visit, had claimed the packages were works of "conceptual art" which would benefit society. 

Sentencing had been delayed while the courts awaited psychiatric reports on Roberts, who it has been established is not suffering from mental illness. 

Jailing him at Cardiff Crown Court, Judge John Griffith QC said: "In light of the events of September 11, your actions demonstrate wickedness of the highest order. 

"The anxiety you caused was considerable...your intention was to cause each recipient to believe the packages contained anthrax." 

The judge said the 30-month sentence was to make it clear to Roberts and others that "offences of this type will not be tolerated". 

The hoax letters were sent in the wake of the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and Washington, and sparked a major security alert in Cardiff, both at the Welsh Assembly building and the city's main postal sorting office. 

Prosecuting Peter Murphy said Roberts had read an article by (Jan) Morris which criticised Rhodri Morgan, saying the First Minister had done nothing for Wales. 

"Roberts agreed with this and that is why he sent the flour. He didn't know why he sent the letter to Jan Morris - but said he found the hoax funny." 

Eventually, after having second thoughts, Roberts raised the alarm himself, the court heard. 

A major security alert was then put into operation, despite Roberts telling police the letters - which also went to two of his friends - only contained flour.

Defending, Peter Heywood said the courts had to view the offences seriously because of their timing. 

"Prison holds no fears for Roberts. 

"It is an environment where he has company and friendship - something he is lacking on this side of the prison wall." 

Roberts has a previous conviction for throwing four eggs at the Queen's car during a Royal visit three years ago. 

He also had convictions for spraying road signs with black paint because they were written in English and not in Welsh.

A Coral Gables man who police say plotted an anthrax hoax to cause trouble for an ex-girlfriend is under arrest, according to information released by police Tuesday. 

Investigators say that in October 2001, Stephen Milberg mailed three envelopes containing white powder and a threatening note to his attorney Brian Bieber; his own father, Robert Reiter; and to himself. 

When Bieber received the envelope, police evacuated his office building and fire rescue personnel from Coral Gables, and the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Hazardous Materials team were called. Thirteen police officers and three fire department trucks were kept at the scene for three hours. Building managers closed the 10-story office building for four days while a state laboratory tested the suspicious substance. Hundreds of office workers were sent home and dozens of businesses were sealed and closed. 

Coral Gables police working with U. S. postal inspectors investigated this case and identified Milberg as being the person responsible for mailing the threatening letters and the purported anthrax. 

Milberg surrendered to authorities in April, and is awaiting trial in Fort Lauderdale. 

Milberg is charged with mailing threatening communications and making false statements to police and postal inspectors. If he is found guilty, in addition to whatever sentence he receives, Coral Gables law enforcement says it will seek reimbursement for investigative costs. 

Wiltshire Times
July 26, 2002

A POISON PEN letter containing an anthrax warning was sent to a pregnant woman in Warminster sparking a major security alert. 

The young mother, who has not been identified by police, was taken with her 18-month-old child to the Royal United Hospital in Bath, where they were tested for traces of anthrax poisoning. 

The area surrounding Brook Street was sealed of by police officers at 2pm on Thursday, July25, minutes after the heavily pregnant woman telephoned the emergency services. 

Residents living in the quiet neighbourhood were evacuated from their homes as a safety precaution. 

Police investigators examined the letter and home of the victim but found no traces of the deadly substance. 

Anthrax scares have been rife in the UK since Middle-Eastern terrorist groups carried out genuine attacks in the USA using the chemical last year. 

Anthrax hoaxer gets 10-month sentence

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) - A man who mailed letters threatening to use anthrax against government agencies was sentenced Monday to 10 months in prison.

Amir Omerovic, 28, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Bosnia, had faced up to five years in prison after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court in February.

After serving his term, Omerovic will be confined to his home for six months and placed on supervision that will include mental health treatment, Judge Alan Nevas ordered.

Federal prosecutors said Omerovic mailed letters in October to Gov. John Rowland, the Coast Guard, Marine Corps and other public agencies in Connecticut. The letters referred to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"This is only the beginning," the letters said. "Americans will die. Death to America and Israel."

The letters did not contain anthrax or any other substance.

Federal officials said there was no evidence that Omerovic had access to anthrax. 

By TAMMY WILKINSON Of The Star Courier

KEWANEE - It's business as usual at the Kewanee Food Pantry.

Kewanee Fire Chief Tom Weston reported that personnel and volunteers were given permission Friday afternoon to resume duties after the facility was forced to close last week. 

The site had been secured following a possible hazardous contamination scare when an unknown "powdery substance" was found inside a mailed envelope. Weston said test results came back negative.

"The tests determined exactly what we hoped for, that there was no sign of any type of bacteria present," said Weston. 

Tests did not identify the samples which were examined at an Illinois Department of Public Health lab in Springfield. 

At the time of the discovery, the Kewanee Fire Department declared the building and two workers who had come in contact with the substance as being contaminated. 

A plan to decontaminate the area and personnel was followed by the firefighters. 

"This incident proved to be a good exercise and learning tool for our department," said Weston. "Not knowing exactly what we were dealing with put a different type of pressure on the guys in comparison to a normal training exercise. It was the fact of not knowing exactly what we were dealing with that proved to be a beneficial tool to us."

Food pantry staff was back hard at work Friday, with the expected arrival of two truckloads of food. 

Woman sentenced to jail for anthrax hoaxes in Jasper County

By the Associated Press

BEAUMONT, Texas (AP) -- A 24-year-old woman has been sentenced to 16 months in prison for sending envelopes that contained powder to a paper mill where she was a temporary employee. 

U.S. District Judge Richard Schell last week also sentenced Samantha Rogers, 24, to five years probation and to a mental health treatment program for threatening use of a weapon of mass destruction. 

She will also be required to pay restitution, the amount of which will be determined at a hearing Aug. 16. 

Last October, Rogers, of Rose City near Beaumont, was a temporary employee at Westvaco, a paper mill in southern Jasper County. Authorities said a blank envelope containing what tests later showed to be coffee creamer arrived at the mill on Oct. 17. Two days later another blank envelope containing what was determined to be sugar arrived at the mill. 

Two mill employees were treated for anthrax in connection with the first envelope, but no one was hurt in either incident.

By Jerry Bier
The Fresno Bee
August 8, 2002

If he behaves himself for a year -- not sending his mother birthday cards with "ANTHRAX" written on the envelope, for instance -- Michael Christopher Murphy could wipe his criminal record clean.

Murphy, 20, appeared in federal court Wednesday and agreed to a deferred-prosecution deal in which he will perform 120 hours of community service, obey all laws and meet other conditions set by a pretrial officer.

If he completes the year successfully, the government will drop charges that Murphy -- a tall, thin young man with a shock of brown hair -- knowingly sent a threat through the mail, a crime punishable by as long as five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Except to answer "yes" or "yes, ma'am" to U.S. Magistrate Judge Sandra M. Snyder's q