Kaufman Responds To Lock Down Arrest
Joyce Kaufman believes she is on the path to vindication.
"My only desire is that the truth be told," Kaufman told me tonight.
I spoke to WFTL radio talk show host Kaufman tonight about the arrest today of Ellisa Martinez, a New Port Richey woman accused of sending email and phone threats to Kaufman and WFTL that led to a county-wide lock down of Broward County schools on Wednesday, November 10.
We learned the contents of the email threat -- which came in to the WFTL website. "i'm [sic] planning something big around a government building here in Broward County, maybe a post office, maybe even a school, I'm going to walk in and teach all the government hacks working there what the 2nd amendment is all about . . . we'll end this year of 2010 in a blaze of glory for sure."
According to the feds, the email also says that the listener met Kaufman at an event for Congressman-elect Allen West, whom Kaufman supported and was expected to be his chief of staff before the uproar over the email threat. The email says the woman was "especially exited (sic) to hear you encourage us to exercise our second amendment gun rights" and Kaufman's plan to "organize people in the hills of Kentucky."
According to the federal complaint, the email was followed up with a phone threat by the supposed wife of "Bill Johnson", who was concerned that her bi-polar husband was going to shoot up a Pembroke Pines school.
That spurred the lock down.
Kaufman felt the media portrayed her as the culprit rather than the victim in the days after the threats became public -- largely because of a comment she made at a political rally last summer that was replayed on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow show. In the comment, Kaufman said, "If ballots don't work, bullets will." She said the comment references a comment made by Thomas Jefferson and was taken out of context.
Kaufman believed she garnered blame for the lock down. Now, she said Tuesday's arrest proves she was the victim.
"For days my name was dragged through the mud," she said. "People accused me of inciting violence in Broward County Schools. These were kids who were affected. They were locked down for 5 hours. Parents were left standing outside and they were pretty angry with me and I think what we're about to find out is this had not much to do with me."
Kaufman believes once all the details emerge we will know who was really behind the threats.
We have learned from CBS 4 I-Team investigator Jim DeFede that Martinez turned herself in to authorities in California after she realized she was wanted. She is charged with communicating threats and will be in court Wednesday. As for her motivation, authorities say they aren't sure.
I asked Kaufman if the incident would cause her to choose her words more carefully.
"I stand by the fact that I have made plenty of speeches and never has any violence been the result of any of my speeches," Kaufman said. "Sometimes I get noisy my intentions are honorable I have never desired anything but the absolute normalcy of the American political system."
