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Agents Arrest Mississippi Man in Ricin Case Agents Arrest a Second Mississippi Man In Ricin Letters Case
(about 1 hour later)
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. A former taekwondo instructor was taken into custody early Saturday by federal authorities in Mississippi, accused of mailing letters containing the poison ricin to the president, a United States senator and a local judge.
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. The arrest of J. Everett Dutschke, 41, in TupeloF, is the second in two weeks in connection with the letters. An earlier suspect, an Elvis impersonator named Paul Kevin Curtis, also of Tupelo, was released after no evidence was found linking him to the letters; Mr. Curtis’s attorney said during a hearing in federal court that Mr. Dutschke appeared to have framed Mr. Curtis.
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. Deborah Madden, a spokeswoman for the F.B.I. in Jackson said Mr. Dutschke had been arrested at his home shortly before 1 a.m. Saturday. A law enforcement official in Tupelo said his arrest was uneventful.
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. “He walked out and they took him into custody,” said Sgt. James Hood of the Tupelo Police Department. “No problem or anything.”
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. An attorney for Mr. Dutschke did not immediately return a message on Saturday seeking comment.
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. The arrest is the latest chapter in a bizarre case that began during the tense week of the Boston Marathon bombing. Authorities had announced that letters addressed to President Obama and Senator Roger Wicker, Republican of Mississippi, had been found to contain a “suspicious granular substance” later determined to be ricin, a deadly poison. A similar letter with the substance was also sent to Judge Sadie Holland of the Lee County Justice Court.
Law enforcement officials said the letters were carefully crafted to mimic the characteristic phrasing and concerns of Mr. Curtis. The letters spoke of “Missing Pieces,” and were signed “I am KC and I approve this message,” both standard parts of e-mail messages sent to numerous public officials by Mr. Curtis, who had been on a one-man campaign for more than a decade to expose what he alleged was an illicit organ-harvesting scheme at a Tupelo hospital.
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.” Mr. Curtis was arrested on April 17 and while in custody, federal agents searched his home — even, according to Mr. Curtis’s stepfather, tearing up the bed and the ceiling — as well a former wife’s house, but found no evidence tying him to the letters.
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. Law enforcement officials said on Saturday that the letters were carefully written to mimic Mr. Curtis’s characteristic phrasing and concerns. While they regretted having arrested a man they now consider innocent, they wanted to move quickly to stop the poisoned letters, one official said.
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. Curtis’s brother Jack said neither he nor other relatives immediately dismissed the charges as false, given Kevin Curtis’s history of mental illness.
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. “We could understand, especially with the things that were tied to his initials,” he said. “I could see why somebody would think it was Kevin, but when they said President Obama I thought, ‘Somebody messed up because he likes Obama.’ ”
The family suggested to authorities that Kevin Curtis might have been framed, and Jack Curtis said he told authorities to look at Mr. Dutschke, who used for work for him and had long had an antagonistic relationship with Kevin; on Monday, in a hearing in federal court, Mr. Curtis’s lawyer mentioned Mr. Dutsckhe by name. Mr. Dutschke and Mr. Curtis had feuded, mostly online, on a variety of topics including their music careers, Kevin Curtis’s admittedly false claim to be a member of Mensa, and Mr. Duscthke’s unwillingness to publish his organ-harvesting allegations about the hospital in a local newsletter.
Mr. Dutschke, a bright but often abrasive man who ran unsuccessfully for the state legislature, was arrested this year on charges that he molested three under age girls, one as young as 7. He pleaded not guilty to the charges this month.
On Tuesday, Mr. Curtis was released from jail and the charges against him were dropped. At a news conference, Mr. Curtis said he did not blame federal authorities but added that “this past week has been a nightmare for me and my family.”
On Tuesday and Wednesday, federal agents searched Mr. Dutschke’s home and his former taekwondo school, Tupelo Takewondo Plus. James D. Moore, the prosecuting attorney for Lee County, said that evidence had been found but would not characterize its nature.
As he became the focus of the inquiry, Mr. Dutschke denied having anything to do with the ricin letters but tried to keep a low profile, to the point where authorities briefly lost track of him.
The strangeness of the whole series of events was not shocking to some who knew both men.
“There’s been bad blood between those two for years,” said Mr. Moore, the prosecutor. Of their entanglement in this case, he added, “Hindsight’s 20/20, but knowing these two guys I ain’t surprised.”

Thomas Kaplan and Scott Shane contributed reporting.