Apr 06, 2010

Wash. man angry about health overhaul accused of threatening Sen. Murray

03:39 PM

A 64-year-old Washington state man who was "extremely angry" about the passage of the health care overhaul was arrested today and charged with threatening to kill Democratic Sen. Patty Murray over her support for the legislation, the Justice Department has announced.

Charles Alan Wilson of Selah, near Yakima, was arrested this morning at home by the FBI and local police. He is due in court later today on a charge of threatening a federal official, the Yakima Herald-Republic reports.

The U.S. attorney's news release said a man called her office between March 22 and April 4 "on multiple occasions" and left "expletive-laden threatening messages. Among them, according to several voicemail transcripts in the criminal complaint (pdf): ""I want to .... kill you"; "Kill the ... Senator!"; "I'll donate the lead"; and "You're signing my death warrant, so I want to sign yours ..."

The caller also said that "there's a target on your back" and that he would help others kill her. The caller also said he hoped that someone would kill President Obama.

The caller denounced Murray as a "far left liberal socialist democratic bitch." He said in one message that "I'm not a tea party bagger. I'm an independent U.S. voter. I'm neither Republican nor Democrat."

On March 23, the day Obama signed the bill into law, he referred to "This great country that believes in God and guns."

The FBI said Wilson told undercover agents that he "regularly carries a firearm with a concealed weapons permit," according to the complaint.

Murray's office contacted the FBI on March 24 to report that the threatening calls had been received "over the past several months," usually after work hours, early in the morning or on weekends. The calls were allegedly made from a blocked phone number, so the FBI subpoenaed telephone company records to identify the caller and his location.

If convicted, Wilson could be sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined $250,000.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... overhaul/1