Free Republic

CAMDEN, N.C. — A former Blackwater USA employee said Friday an addiction to prescription pain killers led her to try to extort $1 million from the security company by threatening to leak information about the killings of four contractors in Iraq. Laura Holdren-Nowacki, 35, of Moyock, made the admission in a statement released after she pleaded not guilty to one count of extortion. District Attorney Frank Parrish said outside of court that, at Blackwater's request, he will ask Monday for the charge to be dropped. Holdren-Nowacki said she suffered from "significant depression and severe migraine headaches" and had taken significantly...