Man Accused Of Threatening Lawmakers Ruled Incompetent
FLINT (WWJ/AP) - A Flint man who authorities say threatened to kill three lawmakers from Michigan has been ruled incompetent to stand trial.
U.S. District Judge Mark A. Goldsmith made the determination Tuesday about 54-year-old Randall Dellinger, who was indited in August on one count of using interstate communication to make a threat.
Dellinger's lawyer Elias Escobedo Jr. says the ruling followed a review by a psychologist, and his client likely will be referred to a federal mental health facility for treatment.
The FBI said the threatening calls were made last June to offices of U.S. Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow and Dellinger's then-Congressman Dale Kildee.
Dellinger allegedly told police he threatened the lawmakers because he believes he is "dying of leukemia caused by the RF transmitters." According to court documents, Dellinger told agents radio frequency transmitters were planted in him while he served a state prison term for detonating grenades. He said the transmitters were "used to control his actions by causing pain."
Federal records show Dellinger, who was arrested in June, threatened to kill the lawmakers if they didn't "do something" about the Michigan Corrections Department, which he blames for health problems.
"You start doing something (expletive) before you leave office or I will put you down the day you (expletive) leave," Dellinger is accused of saying in a voice message left at Kildee's Flint office, according to the federal complaint.
Similar messages were left at Stabenow's Flint office and Levin's Washington D.C. office.
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