(CelebNMusic247-News) New Ricin Suspect Arrested:
Federal agents in Mississippi arrested a martial arts instructor early Saturday as part of an investigation into ricin-laced letters sent to President Obama and two other officials.
The man, J. Everett Dutschke, was taken into custody at his home in Tupelo shortly before 1 a.m., a spokeswoman for the F.B.I. in Jackson said.
Mr. Dutschke’s arrest came after criminal charges were dropped on Tuesday against another Mississippi man, Paul Kevin Curtis, who said he had been framed by Mr. Dutschke, a longtime personal rival.
Letters postmarked from Memphis and filled with a white powder were received this month by Mr. Obama; Senator Roger Wicker, Republican of Mississippi; and Sadie Holland, a judge in Lee County in Mississippi. Tests confirmed that the powder was ricin, a poison made from castor beans that can be lethal.
The letters read: “Maybe I have your attention now even if that means someone must die. This must stop. To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance.” They were signed “I am KC and I approve this message,” a phrase Mr. Curtis had used on Facebook.
Mr. Curtis, 45, was arrested and charged, but he was freed days later after the F.B.I. said it could find no evidence that he was behind the plot. The inquiry then turned toward Mr. Dutschke, who lawyers for Mr. Curtis said had framed their client. Last week, F.B.I. agents searched Mr. Dutschke’s house.
Law enforcement officials said the letters were carefully crafted to mimic the characteristic phrasing and concerns of Mr. Curtis.
The F.B.I. had earlier searched Mr. Dutschke’s home and his martial arts studio, Tupelo Taekwondo Plus. A law enforcement official in Tupelo said his arrest was uneventful. “He walked out and they took him into custody,” the official, Sergeant James Hood of the Tupelo Police Department, said. “No problem or anything.”
A lawyer for Mr. Dutschke did not immediately return a message on Saturday, and police officials referred questions to the United States attorney in Oxford, Miss.
Mr. Dutschke and Mr. Curtis had a tangled past. For more than a decade, Mr. Curtis has been trying to expose what he said was an organ-harvesting scheme at a hospital; a few years ago, when Mr. Dutschke was putting out a local newsletter, Mr. Curtis confronted him in a restaurant and publicly challenged him to print an article about his accusations against the hospital. Another time, Mr. Dutschke admonished Mr. Curtis for posting a fake Mensa certificate online. Mr. Curtis’s family viewed the rebuke as so severe that they consulted with a lawyer about legal action.
Mr. Dutschke was arrested in January on charges of child molestation. He also ran unsuccessfully for local elected office; in 2007, he challenged Judge Holland’s son Steve, a Democratic state representative from Lee County, and lost by a wide margin.
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