TUPELO, Miss., (Reuters) – A Mississippi martial arts instructor was charged on Saturday with attempting to use a biological weapon after a ricin-laced letter was sent to President Barack Obama earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
James Everett Dutschke, age 41, was arrested early on Saturday, following searches of his home and a former business as part of the ricin letter investigation.
Dutschke was taken into custody by FBI agents at his Tupelo home shortly after midnight FBI spokeswoman Deborah Madden said in a statement.
He was later charged with “acquiring, retaining and possessing a biological agent … ricin, and with attempting, threatening and conspiring” to use it as a weapon, according to a joint announcement by Felicia C. Adams, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Mississippi, and Daniel McMullen, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Mississippi.
If convicted, Dutschke faces maximum possible penalties of life imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.
The announcement did not specify if Dutsche was being charged in relation to the ricin letters, but it said the investigation had been conducted jointly by several federal agencies including the U. S. Postal Inspection Service, and the U. S. Capitol Police.
Dutschke is expected to appear in the United States District Court in Oxford, Mississippi, on Monday.
U.S. prosecutors dropped charges on Tuesday against another Mississippi man, Elvis impersonator Kevin Curtis, who was released from jail after a search of his home in nearby Corinth revealed no incriminating evidence.
Prosecutors said at the time that the investigation had “revealed new information” but provided no details.
Dutschke’s attorney, Lori Basham, did not return calls seeking comment but she told Reuters earlier in the week that her client denied having anything to do with the ricin letters.
Agents from the FBI and the U.S. Capitol Police, as well as members of an anti-terrorist response team from the Mississippi National Guard, some wearing hazardous material suits, had searched Dutschke’s home on Tuesday and Wednesday, as well as the premises of a former martial arts studio Dutschke ran in the city.
Dutschke was cooperating with federal officials during the searches this week, the attorney said.
Agents in unmarked vehicles were stationed in streets surrounding Dutschke’s home on Friday afternoon and all evening. He was arrested at 12:50 a.m. CDT (0550 GMT), the FBI said.
Letters addressed to President Barack Obama and Senator Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, were retrieved last week at off-site mail facilities before reaching their intended victims. A Mississippi state judge also received a ricin-laced letter.
The discovery added another layer of anxiety as authorities were already dealing with bombings at the Boston Marathon.
Ricin, which is made from castor beans, can be deadly to humans and is considered a potential terror weapon, particularly if refined into an aerosol form.
The case has brought extra scrutiny on the FBI almost 12 years after a 2001 letter-borne anthrax attack that killed five people and took seven years to solve. The anthrax investigation also came in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked plane attack on the United States.
RUNNING FEUD
Dutschke’s name first surfaced in a federal court hearing on Monday for Curtis where his attorney suggested her client had been framed by someone. She mentioned a running feud between Dutschke and Curtis, albeit over a number of seemingly petty issues.
Suspicion had originally fallen on Curtis because of wording contained in all three ricin letters.
“Maybe I have your attention now / Even if that means someone must die,” the letters read in part, according to the affidavit. The letters ended: “I am KC and I approve this message.”
The mention of “KC” led law enforcement officials to ask Wicker’s staff if they were aware of any constituents with those initials, and the focus of the investigation then turned to Curtis, according to an affidavit from the FBI and the Secret Service.
In 2007, Dutschke ran unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate against Stephen Holland, an incumbent Democratic state representative from the Tupelo area. Holland’s mother, Sadie, is the judge to whom one of the ricin-tainted letters was mailed this month.
Dutschke has told local media that he knew Curtis but had only had contact with him three times, and not since 2010.
Curtis, 45, told the Northeastern Mississippi Daily Journal that he believed Dutschke deliberately sabotaged his career as a performer by calling sponsors and telling them about Curtis’ numerous prior arrests. “I lost 12 really big shows in 2011 and eight in 2012 directly linked to him,” Curtis told the newspaper.
Dutschke is also musical and fronted a two-man blues band in Tupelo called RoboDrum.
“MISSING PIECES”
Curtis’s brother and fellow Elvis impersonator, insurance agent Jack Curtis, worked for a time with Dutschke and says he believes the feud with Dutschke is related to his brother’s efforts to publicize allegations about a black market for body parts at a local Mississippi hospital.
Kevin Curtis was fired as a janitor from North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo after raising questions about body parts he said he observed there. The hospital strongly denied the allegations.
Dutschke faces other charges related to an April 1 indictment for fondling three different children between ages 7 and 16, from 2007 to 2013, according to court records. He was released on $25,000 bond in that case.
One of Dutschke’s alleged child molestation victims was 7 years old at the time and was a female student in his tae kwon do class, court documents show.
