Security: Mississippi Man Indicted in Ricin Letters Case

U.S. Attorney’s Office 
Northern District of Mississippi

OXFORD, MS—James Everett Dutschke, 41, of Tupelo, Mississippi, has been charged as a defendant in a five-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Oxford, Mississippi, announced Felicia C. Adams, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Mississippi, and Daniel McMullen, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Mississippi announced.

The indictment charges Dutschke with one count of knowingly developing, producing, stockpiling, transferring, acquiring, retaining, and possessing a biological agent, toxin, and delivery system for use as a weapon and with attempting to do the same. If convicted on this charge, Dutschke faces maximum possible penalties of life in prison, a $250,000 fine, and five years of supervised release.

In addition, he was charged with one count of threatening the president of the United States by mail, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, $250,000 fine, and three years’ supervised release; two counts of threatening others by mail, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, $250,000 fine and three years’ supervised release; and one count of falsifying, concealing, and covering up by trick, scheme, and fraudulent device, material facts, to impede the investigation of threatening letters containing ricin in an effort to make it appear that someone else had sent the threatening letters. The final charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, $250,000 fine, and three years’ supervised release.

Dutschke is expected to appear in the U.S. District Court in Oxford, Mississppi, on Thursday, June 6, 2013, before U.S. Magistrate Judge S. Allan Alexander. The indictment contains allegations of a crime and a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.

The indictment resulted from a cooperative investigation by the FBI-Mississippi and Memphis Joint Terrorism Task Forces, the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Capitol Police, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Mississippi, and the Counterterrorism Section of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, assisted by the following state and local agencies: Mississippi National Guard 47th Civil Support, Mississippi Office of Homeland Security, Lee County Sheriff’s Office, Prentiss County Sheriff’s Office, Corinth Police Department, Tupelo Police Department, and Booneville Police Department.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Marshall Alexander, Chad Lamar, and Clay Joyner of the Northern District of Mississippi and Andrew Sigler of the Department of Justice, National Security Division.