Everett Dutschke
TWIST: Agents in hazmat suits search the Mississippi home of J. Everett Dutschke (right) the same day charges were dropped against his rival Paul Kevin Curtis (below left). (
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The bizarre case of ricin-laced letters sent to President Obama got weirder yesterday as the federal probe shifted to the bitter enemy of the Elvis impersonator who was initially charged.
Agents in hazmat uniforms searched the former tae kwon do studio of J. Everett Dutschke, 41, in Tupelo, Miss., after the feds dropped charges against Paul Kevin Curtis, 45.
Both men are into martial arts and music, claim to be members of the high-IQ Mensa society — and call each other crazy.
“He’s just a little nutty,” said Dutschke, who suggested Curtis’ lawyers tried to implicate him to save their client from the ricin charges.
“I guess Kevin got desperate. I feel like he’s getting away with a perfect crime,” he told the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger.
Both men deny any involvement with the poisonous letters to Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and an 80-year-old Mississippi judge, Sadie Holland.
They have exchanged angry e-mails for years, but disagree about what fueled their feud.
Curtis, who called Dutschke “delusional,” said, “I don’t know if it’s a martial-arts kind of conflict.”
He also said Dutschke told him he had formed a blues band called Robodrum that would compete with Curtis’ Elvis-impersonation act.
“We’re going to throw you off the national circuit,” Dutschke’s e-mail to him allegedly said.
Dutschke said he threatened to sue Curtis for posting online a certificate claiming Curtis was a Mensa member. “I called him out on that in an e-mail confrontation,” Dutschke said.
In another twist, Curtis said Dutschke told him he owned a newspaper and showed interest in publishing Curtis’ book, “Missing Pieces,” about an alleged underground market to sell body parts.
But after Dutschke decided not to publish the material, he began stalking him on the Internet, Curtis said.
And there’s a real Elvis angle to the case: Dutschke ran against Holland’s son, Democratic state representative Steve Holland in 2007. Brandon Presley, a distant cousin of Elvis, who is Mississippi’s northern-district public-service commissioner, attended a rally during that campaign.
He said yesterday he remembers Dutschke giving a “militant” speech attacking Holland.
“I just remember everybody’s jaw dropping,” Presley said.
Dutschke is free on $25,000 bond and awaiting trial on separate charges of allegedly molesting children at his martial-arts studio.
He said he was “amazed” when prosecutors dropped the ricin charges against Curtis. Dutschke denied any involvement with ricin or even having a feud.
“I’m a patriotic American. I don’t hold grudges against anybody,” he said.
With Post Wires