BANGOR, Maine — A man serving a three-year sentence in state prison for drug trafficking pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court to a charge that he threatened to kill President Barack Obama.
Leroy Eugene Dunn, 30, of Hampden was indicted Jan. 12 by a federal grand jury for making threats against the president. He pleaded not guilty on Jan. 30.
By pleading guilty, Dunn admitted that in April 2011 he wrote: “I hate you and will do anything I can to get rid of you. You will die at my hands. I will kill you Barack Obama.”
A sentencing date will not be set until U.S. Probation and Pre-Trial Services conduct a presentence report.
U.S. District Judge John Woodcock, who accepted Dunn’s plea and will impose a sentence, said Wednesday that it would be helpful to him if Dunn were to be evaluated by a psychiatrist and physician employed by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
The defendant suffers from Marfan syndrome, defense attorney Stephen Smith of Bangor told the judge Wednesday. Marfan syndrome is a disorder of the body’s connective tissues that can result in disproportionately long arms and legs, among other symptoms.
Dunn’s mother, Philomena Gordon of Bingham, has said her son is mentally disabled. She also has noted that he suffers from the effects of Marfan syndrome.
Gordon said her son stands 7 feet, 6 inches tall and weighs more than 300 pounds. She told the Lewiston Sun Journal earlier this year that Dunn should be under supervised medical and psychiatric care, not behind bars.
Dunn wrote the letter to Obama while housed at the Piscataquis County Jail in Dover-Foxcroft when the drug trafficking case in Penobscot County was pending, according to the prosecution’s version of events filed in federal court in Bangor.
Last fall, Dunn pleaded guilty in state court to threatening Gov. Paul LePage. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail to be served concurrently with a three-year sentence for drug trafficking.
He has been incarcerated at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham for about 1½ years on the drug charge, Smith told the judge Wednesday. Dunn most likely would not begin serving his federal sentence until he has served the state sentence.
Dunn isn’t the first inmate to be charged with threatening a president. Charles D. Miles, 32, of Skowhegan was sentenced in January 2007 to eight years in prison for threatening to kill two presidents, a governor, a federal judge and other public officials in letters penned over a four-year period.
Miles, who is due to be released from federal prison in November 2012, was committed to the former Augusta Mental Health Institute in 2000 after he was found not criminally responsible for setting the March 1999 fire that leveled the historic grandstand exhibition hall in Skowhegan. The fire caused $3 million in damage.
He is expected to be returned to Riverview Psychiatric Center, formerly AMHI, when he is released this fall.
Dunn faces up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.
maybe if his name was Ted Nugent he wouldnt even be in court.
You obviously either don’t have a clue what Nugent actually said, or you just don’t have a clue.
Nugent didn’t threaten anyone, he was investigated and cleared. If he had said the EXACT same things about the previous President, he would not have even been investigated.
That’s simply false. During the last administration, people were questioned for showing up at Bush rally’s with Kerry bumper-stickers.
Threats from a dude that size should be taken seriously.
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I know this man personally and although to people he loves you could say he’s a big teddy bear… I would not put it past him in his worst state, to hurt someone
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Sounds to me like he might like being locked up, perhaps the routine of it all …I don’t know, just a thought
Anyone who is different has a hard time in this society . Most people can not understand his frustration . The man needs help. He needs to feel important. I think many people have been unfriendly to him because his size. He could be a hero with the right help and respect look what Andry the giant was in my day.
Hi Bob…how right you are…99.9% of these people that post on here don’t even have a clue what life is all about…..and it does sound to me like you do…..my son has extensive medical and psychiatric issues and for these clowns…oh excuse me please Bob …the word clown is just to good to be used on here….they are worse than the dirt that runs off of our shoes when we are out walking,……and i am not by no way a prejudice indivivual… but i do believe in calling it black if it is black and calling it white if it is white…i do not believe in coloring my words or opions…and you know Bob the old saying “opions are like buttholes…and evidentely there are alot of buttholes on here!!!
you aint gonna like the feds leroy…not the cushy prison system maine has
Guess he is going to occupy a jail cell a little longer. No camping in the park for you.
I guess that you people have nothing more to do than to run your ignorant holes in the middle of your faces…You know something don’t JUDGE SOMEONE ELSE UNTIL YOU HAVE WALKED IN THEIR SHOES….AND EVIDENTLY YO HAVE NOT WALKED IN MR. DUNN’S SHOES OR ELSE YOU WOULD NOT POST THESE IGNORANT COMMENTS!!!!!! to JOHNNY C evidently you have not done any tkime in jail or prison…it does not matter whether you are in state or federal prison neither of them are cushy…there is nothing cushy about being again from your loved ones…so jonny boy why don’t you grow up and learn to shut your mouth!!!!!
NEWS FLASH to YOU…I Have done time ! Time with your boy LEROY ! I always thought he was O.K.,and him and I played a LOT of cards together. AND i hate to tell you (no I dont) Maine has a VERY cushy prison system ! Just check out the allowable items list for the D.O.C. and then you tell me Maine DOSENT have a CUSHY prison system ! Leroy needs to get it together and quit TRYING to impress pu## azzed kids with “im a drug dealer”. BUT YOU most of all need to quit making EXCUSES for Leroy dealing drugs. It took a lot of hard work for me to “get it together” and now im a PRODUCTIVE member of society and have stayed out of prison for almost a DECADE. Leroy could do the same if he WANTED TOO
WELL HERE IS A NEWS FLASH FOR YOU LITTLE BOY….IF YOU HAD ONE HALF OF THE INTERGITY AND COMPASSION FOR HUMAN LIFE THAT MY SON LEROY HAS THEN I WOULD BE ABLE TO CALL YOU A PRODUCTIVE CITIZEN OF SOCIETY…WHAT DO YOU DO PUMP GAS ON THE CORNER OR ARE YOU ONE OF THOSE FLUNKIES THAT GOES OUT IN THE STORE PARKING LOT AND GATHERS UP THE CARTS…AND THEN AFTER WORK RUN TO THE METHODONE CLINIC FOR YOUR LEGAL FIX!!!!!! I AM A MOTHER AND UNTIL YOU HAVE WALKED IN MY SHOES AND MY SONS SHOES LEAVE YOUR MOUTH OFF OF US AND OUT OF THIS PAPER OH AND PLEASE OH PLEASE ARE YOU ONE OF THOSE WELFARE RATS THAT LEPAGE IS TRYING TO STOP OUR HARD WORKING PUBLIC DOLLARS GOING TOO????
There you go talking about yourself again……I work on bridges @23 bucks an hour and I dont do drugs. Never have. And I have three kids and FIVE grandchildren. And from reading your other posts YOU jump on EVERYBODY that isnt saying POOR LEROY !! AND I think that if you had spent more time with him showing him affection that he wouldnt act out half as much trying to get attention. And the attention he is getting now is NEGATIVE attention. I KNOW Leroy. And as normal as it is to want to defend you child…..you dont have to sink to name calling or bashing people you know nothing about. I wish Leroy well,and I wish you whatever…..
Although many of the people we know do not like Obama’s chance at what he said he could do to “change” America; and “changing” America is really not the appropriate word to use in my estimation. However you never wish or perform death threats on anyone, let-alone the President of the United States or any other politician – just wait awhile and they get voted out of office. This Leroy Dunn fella seems a likeable enough guy, but to see his photo, I doubt his elevator reaches the top floor, although with Marfan Syndrome, something is out of whack in the attic. His stay at Riverview proves it! By the way, if he wrote that letter to the President at the jail, did anyone there put him up to it, or has any investigation into this taken place yet?
Chipi_caculha…how would you know that leroy had a stay at the riverview facility……and if he did have you ever heard of confidentliality …i would like to ask you one question that i feel releates to this…are you a private investigator or a newspaper journalist….and where did you get your md degree to assume that if you have Marfans Disorder that something is not right in the attic….My advice to you Chip is that you take all that extra time that you have to write ignorant comments on here and put it to good use by researching Marfans Disorder…last I knew it was called the Disease of the Giants and it has to due with connective tissue and that kind of tissue was not stored in the ATTIC!!!
Oh Jessie…why would you sink so low as to say such mean and hateful things about leroy… is it because this is retailtion for him dumping you…you know as well as I know that leroy could never hurt anyone not even a fly….you really need to grow up jessie and stop saying untrue comments about Leroy ..oh and this is for you from Leroys aunt…do you really know leroy personally? funny thing, I have never heard him speak of you…and further more, until you occupy space in leroys head, you cannot say or guess what he would do in his worse state! Maybe you should be spending your time taking care of your kids instead of shooting your mouth off on here about someone you know nothing about! Hate to break your heart, but leroy isn’t into ready made families… awful when you need to post on the BDN to feel important!