Posted on 06/22/2002 6:52:14 AM PDT by sinclair
| Man, 37, arrested in mailed threats LAFAYETTE -- A 37-year-old Rayne man accused of sending out hundreds of letters in April laced with white powder and strange, ranting bomb threats appeared before a federal judge Friday. If convicted, 37-year-old Stephen Michael Long could face life in prison. He was booked Thursday night with threatening use of certain weapons of mass destruction, mailing threatening communications and interstate wire transmission of threatening communications. Federal prosecutors Friday asked U.S. District Magistrate C. Michael Hill to keep Long in prison indefinitely until he can be tried. Assistant U.S. Attorney Rick Willis called Long a "domestic terrorist" who intended to "wreak havoc" on the community with his letters. Hill will preside over a hearing Wednesday to determine if Long can be granted bail. After the routine hearing, Hill warned attorneys Friday against saying too much to the media about the case. The U.S. Attorney's Office -- after Hill's lecture -- decided not to hand out stacks of press releases and declined to answer many questions. But a criminal complaint filed Thursday in federal court by FBI agents provided several details of the investigation, as well as insight into Long's alleged motivation. According to the complaint: More than 200 envelopes with Lafayette postmarks were sent throughout Lafayette Parish, Baton Rouge, Texas, Missouri and Ohio. Recipients included law enforcement, court personnel, media, law offices and health-care companies and institutions. One of the health-care places was Amelia Manor, a Lafayette nursing home, where Long worked from 2000 until this year, investigators later found out. Some of the envelopes contained a white powder. In light of the post-Sept. 11 anthrax scare, that powder frightened hundreds. Letters inside the envelopes also contained references to al-Qaida, "The Brothers" and a series of bombs waiting to explode throughout Acadiana. On April 26 -- after the letters were mailed -- someone left a strange message on FBI Agent Rick McHenry's work answering machine, telling McHenry: "You know what I want. Start the show. You know who this is. USL is mine. Now … do it. You're gonna have to explain a lot to my wife." The message was traced to a pay phone in Maurice. But the investigation didn't pick up until Wednesday, when a local television anchor reported getting threatening e-mails since June 14. Investigators traced those e-mails to two accounts -- gingerbreadkid2001@juno.com and paybacknow@juno.com. Several of the e-mails contained threats toward McHenry, who supervises the FBI's Lafayette office, and Lafayette Fire Chief Robert Benoit. One reads, in part: "Just tell Rick McHenry he needs to go ahead and face me and deal with his ass-kicking … He needs to suffer and hurt a little bit from the look on my wife's face." Other e-mails contained references to the writer's wife and the look on her face. Investigators tracked down two phone numbers associated with those e-mail accounts. One phone number pointed them to a house on Duson Street in Lafayette, where Long and his wife used to live. The other pointed to a house in Rayne, where Long had moved to live with his brother. The house had burned in a suspected arson April 28 -- almost two weeks after the threatening letters surfaced. Arson investigators interviewed Long on May 6. He told them many of the valuables in the house had been moved out before the fire because he and his wife were contemplating a separation. The fire started in a room where computer equipment was located, though not all the computers were destroyed. Long also told investigators that his wife had suffered an aneurysm and her medication left her face with a blank expression -- which investigators think parallels references in the e-mails. An FBI expert determined that the threatening letters and e-mails traced to Long were probably written by the same person. In arrest records, Long's address is listed as 303 W. Branch St., Rayne. McHenry wouldn't say Friday where Long was arrested Thursday night, but did say the arrest was without incident. |
Me, I got married.
Do not question the Wisdom of THE LAZ. Do not question the power of THE LAZ. THE LAZ is all-knowing, all-seeing.
(Wow, I betchya I could get about 1 billion sun-addled Muslims worshipping me if I tried)
(The answer is: I have broadband.)
Personally, I reevaluated my whole view of life, moved several thousand miles, and changed careers.
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