Thaindian News

HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT (BNO NEWS) — A Connecticut man has been charged with sending numerous hoax anthrax and bomb letters, prosecutors said Thursday.

43-year-old Roland Prejean, also known as “Gary Joseph Gravelle,” recently residing in Thomaston and Morris, Connecticut, was charged for allegedly sending more than 50 anthrax hoax and bomb threat letters to private individuals, post offices, state and federal buildings, judges, and other state and federal government officials around the country.

According to allegations, on or about September 3, while in Connecticut, Prejean began writing a series of threatening letters to numerous recipients including a private individual, a Connecticut probation officer and a Connecticut Superior Court Judge.

In the letters, Prejean threatened to kill various individuals including a postal carrier from Thomaston, Connecticut; a judge in Salt Lake City, Utah; several individuals from the Connecticut Valley Hospital; a judge in Middletown, Connecticut; and a former roommate. He also mailed a threatening letter to the Thomaston, Connecticut Post Office.

The letter addressed to the Thomaston Post Office was received on September 7, in which Prejean allegedly threatened to kill a particular postal carrier as well as everyone in the Post Office.

Prejean further claimed in the letter that he had planted a hidden bomb in the Thomaston Post Office, resulting in the evacuation of the office as well as the Thomaston Town Hall and a Thomaston Public School, which were in the immediate vicinity of the Post Office.

Bomb technicians from the Connecticut State Police Emergency Services Unit searched the post office for explosive devices with negative results.

Additional letters received by victims in Connecticut in early September, included a threat to shoot and kill numerous employees at the Connecticut Valley Hospital and one with a substance that was represented to be “Liquid Anthrax.”

According to the allegations set forth in the federal criminal complaint, during a cross-country drive from Connecticut to North Dakota, Prejean sent more than 50 such threatening mailings to various recipients nationwide.

In some of the letters he placed a white powder that he represented to be anthrax, but which was, in fact, baby or talcum powder.

Thirty-four threatening letters and 17 threatening postcards that Prejean attempted to mail from North Dakota were intercepted before delivery.

Six of the 34 letters contained a powder inside the envelope, while one contained some sort of paste. To date, analysis of the substances contained in the mailings have proved negative for any biological or chemical agents.

Prejean was arrested and remains in custody after he turned himself in to law enforcement authorities in North Dakota on September 7.

He is charged in the federal criminal complaint with mailing threatening communications, and with making threats, through the use of the mail, to kill, injure or intimidate any individual, or to damage or destroy any building by means of an explosive.

If convicted, Prejean faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years on each individual charge.