By James Walsh
Minneapolis Star Tribune
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- He arrested her once, 20 years ago, over threats to bomb an airline flight.
According to the FBI, she’s been threatening to kill him ever since.
Beginning with carving the message: “Death to Scheidler,” on the wall of her jail cell, Kim Rolene Hutterer allegedly has waged a campaign to stalk, harass and threaten FBI special agent Dean Scheidler and his family with letters, telephone calls and text messages. She even allegedly mailed an 11-page letter in October from jail, in which she threatened to mutilate Scheidler. Investigators say she has also threatened to damage a federal facility.
“Maybe it might be your fed place,” she allegedly said in a text message. “Remember that I hate the government.”
On Thursday, Hutterer, 47, made her first appearance in federal court in St. Paul, Minn., on charges of mailing a threatening communication to a federal official. U.S. Magistrate Judge Janie Mayeron ruled that there was probable cause to believe that Hutterer made the threats and that the woman who has a state record of similar behavior is a danger to the public. Mayeron ordered Hutterer jailed.
Hutterer’s threats have gone on for years, according to FBI special agent Thomas Perzichilli, who investigated this case. Long enough that Scheidler not only recognizes her voice, but also her handwriting. The letter Hutterer mailed from jail, though, was enough. That prompted officials to move to action.
In that letter, mailed on Oct. 19 and addressed to the “Agent in Charge” of the FBI office in Minneapolis, Hutterer threatened to kill Scheidler and included five pages of drawings.
Among the passages was: “One thing is for sure, I will never give up going after FBI Special Agent Dean Scheidler. ... No one can stop me until I am dead.”
Jeanne Cooney, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota, said she cannot remember a similar case. “We just don’t see this type of thing here,” she said.
On March 25, according to the FBI, Hutterer was released from state custody.
Perzichilli said Hutterer started calling Scheidler’s home and cellphones the day she was released from jail. On the next day, March 26, the FBI alleges that she left a voice mail message saying she knew his birth date, his wife’s name and the date of their marriage, his children’s names and their birth dates.
She allegedly repeated this message in a text to Scheidler that same day.
On Thursday, Perzichilli testified that Scheidler received another letter at about the same time - unsigned - that he believes came from Hutterer.
That letter states: “Life for you can be very interesting. Be careful my sweet. Life can be very long or it can be short.”
Hutterer’s attorney, Caroline Durham, argued that except for the October 2010 letter, investigators don’t know who sent the threatening letters, texts or telephone calls. The writer and caller left no name.
Also, Durham asked, if Scheidler has been receiving threats all these years -- threats that the FBI believed were credible -- then why hadn’t they arrested anyone until now?
After all, Durham said, Hutterer has never acted on such statements over the years.
Scheidler did not attend the hearing. So Durham asked Perzichilli: “Do you think she is capable of that?” To which he replied: “I don’t know. Do you want my opinion? I don’t know. Anyone is capable.”
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