US News

Elvis set free! Sprung from jail as feds drop ricin rap

WASHINGTON — The Elvis Presley impersonator accused of sending letters laced with lethal ricin to President Obama and a US senator was released from a Mississippi jail yesterday and the charges were dropped.

“I love this country,” Paul Kevin Curtis, 45, said at a press conference, adding that he respected Obama and would never harm a public servant.

“It feels amazing, it feels wonderful. It was overwhelming, to say the least,” he went on about suddenly winning his freedom.

“The last seven days, staring at these four great walls, and to not know what’s really happening, not having a clue when I’m there. I was just in a state of being overwhelmed.”

Curtis’ unexpected release came a day after prosecutors failed to produce hard evidence linking him to the highly toxic ricin or the letters.

“I heard the word ‘ricin’ for the first time in my life,” Curtis told CNN yesterday after his release. “I thought he said ‘rice’ . . . I don’t even eat rice, usually. I’m not even a rice lover.”

Meanwhile, a second Mississippi man being investigated in connection with ricin-laced letters sent to the President Obama and a US senator is a taekwondo teacher and failed Congressional candidate who has feuded with the Elvis impersonator who was originally charged.

Dozens of law enforcement officials, some in hazmat uniforms, searched the Tupelo home of J. Everett Dutschke on Tuesday while charges were dropped against Elvis impersonator Paul Kevin Curtis.

Dutschke, 41, and Curtis have exchanged angry e-mails but they disagree over what started the feud.

Dutschke, who claims to be a member of the high-IQ Mensa society, said he threatened to sue Curtis for falsely claiming to be a member and posting a bogus Mensa certificate.

But Curtis, who called Dutschke “delusional,” indicated Dutschke was jealous of his Elvis act or his martial arts skills. He said Dutschke sent him an e-mail saying he had created a blue band “and we’re going to throw you off the national circuit.”

Dutschke has not been arrested or charged in the case but was arrested in January on child molestation charges.

Both he and Curtis say they have no idea how to make the poisonous ricin and had nothing to do with sending the letters to Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Mississippi county judge Sadie Holland.

“I’m a patriotic American,” Dutschke said. “I don’t have any grudges against anybody. I did not send the letters.” He said he’d had no contact with Curtis since 2010.

Dutschke suggested Curtis was the source of the letters and had given the feds his name to divert suspicion.

“I guess Kevin got desperate. I feel like he’s getting away with the perfect crime,” he told the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion Ledger.

Hal Neilson, a lawyer for Curtis, said that after he was identified as a suspect, the defense gave investigators a list of people who may have had a reason to implicatet him..

“Dutschke came up,” he said. “They (prosecutors) took it and ran with it.”

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) yesterday said another ricin-laced letter was found at Bolling Air Force Base in DC.