ANTHRAX HOAX > Alabama man pleads guilty to mailing hoax Anthrax letters

Wed, 2011-07-13 09:25 AM

By: Mark Rockwell

Robert S. Vance Federal Building

A man in Alabama pleaded guilty on July 12 in a federal courthouse to mailing a series of letters containing white powder to a state legislators, judges and a county sheriff.

Clifton Lamar “Cliff” Dodd, 39 of Lincoln, AL, pleaded guilty to 23 counts of mailing letters containing white powder “that could reasonably have been perceived” as anthrax, said the FBI’s Birmingham division in a July 12 statement. Dodd also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to mail eight of the hoax letters.

A series of the hoax letters was sent through the mail in March and April of last year, said the FBI, arriving at a wide range of locations, including the offices of a U.S. senator and state senator in a federal office building in Birmingham, as well as a county sheriff’s office.

U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby’s office in the Robert S. Vance Federal Building received one of the letters containing white powder on March 8, 2010. Dodd also admitted sending similar powder-laden letters Alabama Sen. Jim Preuitt in Talladega, two Talladega County state court judges, the county’s Sheriff Jerry Studdard, several Talladega County Jail inmates who were in the jail at the same time as Dodd, as well as police investigators from both the Lincoln and Oxford police departments who previously had interviewed Dodd.

Dodd and an accomplice, Millstead “Mickey” Darden, of Lincoln, AL, were first indicted in connection to the mailings in late April, 2010.  Darden pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy charges in the case.

“We are pleased with the defendant’s decision to plead guilty and look forward to sentencing,” U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance said.

According to the FBI, Dodd acknowledged sending 15 hoax anthrax letters between March 6 and April 5, 2010. He also pleaded guilty to mailing another eight letters containing white powder on April 24, 2010, and to conspiring with another man to mail those letters.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the FBI, the Federal Protective Service, and the Talladega County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Whisonant prosecuted the case.