New Orleans man indicted on charge of threatening Barack Obama
By Leslie Williams, The Times-Picayune
January 16, 2010, 12:25AM
A 47-year-old New Orleans resident has been charged by a federal grand jury with threatening to kill President Barack Obama.
A four-count indictment was issued Thursday in connection with a Dec. 30 incident involving John Turnpaugh and a New Orleans Police Department 911 operator, according to information from U.S. Attorney Jim Letten.
The 911 operator received a call from an anonymous person who said he was going to kill Obama and his wife, according to the indictment. He then hung up.
Other charges in the indictment allege Turnpaugh possessed marijuana on Dec. 31 with intent to distribute and he possessed several firearms “in furtherance of his drug trafficking activity.” If convicted of all charges, the maximum sentence could be life imprisonment as well as $1 million in fines, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
The Turnpaugh case was investigated by agents from the Secret Service; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the NOPD.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Salvadore Perricone and Maurice E. Landrieu are prosecuting the defendant.
