TEXARKANA, Texas — A pregnant Texas actress who told the FBI her husband had sent ricin-tainted letters to President Barack Obama and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, then allegedly said her husband made her mail the letters, was charged Friday with threatening the president.
Shannon Guess Richardson, 35, appeared in court after being charged with mailing a threatening communication to the president. The federal charge carries up to 10 years in prison, U.S. attorney’s office spokeswoman Davilyn Walston said.
Richardson, a mother of five who has played bit roles on television, was arrested Friday for allegedly mailing the ricin-laced letters last month to the White House, Bloomberg and the mayor’s Washington gun-control group. The letters threatened violence against gun-control advocates, authorities said.
According to an FBI affidavit, Richardson contacted authorities on May 30 to implicate her husband. She later failed a polygraph test and investigators also found inconsistencies in her story, the document said. Richardson then admitted mailing the letters knowing they contained ricin, but said her husband had typed them and made her print and send them.
No charges have been filed against her husband, Nathaniel Richardson. His attorney said the couple was going through a divorce and that the 33-year-old Army veteran may have been set up by his wife.
FBI agents wearing hazardous material suits were seen going in and out of the Richardsons’ house Wednesday in New Boston, Texas, about 150 miles northeast of Dallas near the Arkansas and Oklahoma borders. Officials have said the search was initiated after Richardson contacted the FBI and implicated her husband.
John Delk, who represents Nathaniel Richardson, said his client was pleased with his wife’s arrest and was working with authorities to prove his innocence. Delk said he wasn’t anticipating that Nathanial Richardson would be arrested.
“But until I’m sure they’re not looking at him being involved, I can’t say much more,” he said.
Delk said the Richardsons were expecting their first child in October. Shannon Richardson also has five children ranging in age from 4 to 19 from other relationships, four of whom had been living with the couple, the attorney said.
