Charges are filed in mail threats

Federal charges were filed Monday against a man suspected of mailing more than a dozen threatening letters containing white powder to celebrities, politicians and journalists.

Chad Conrad Castagana, 39, appeared in federal court in Los Angeles to face a two-count complaint of sending threats by mail and sending hoaxes by mail. He did not enter a plea.

In the complaint released Monday, an FBI agent who questioned Castagana on Saturday said the Woodland Hills man admitted to having sent about 17 letters containing “whatever household items were available, such as baking soda, Borax/laundry detergent, and Ajax.”

The letters, bearing fake return addresses, were sent in recent months to Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who is in line to become speaker of the House; comedians Jon Stewart and David Letterman; Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York; MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann; and Viacom Inc. Chairman Sumner Redstone.

“Castagana described himself as a compulsive voter who votes Republican, and he said that he sent the letters to specific individuals because he did not like their liberal politics,” FBI Special Agent Mary Hogan said in the affidavit.

Castagana said he put powder in the letters “to make sure the recipients would take his letters seriously,” Hogan said.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Patrick Walsh ordered Castagana held without bail pending a continuation of the hearing Thursday.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Donald Gaffney requested that there be no bail on the grounds that Castagana was a flight risk and because of “his mental health state.” Gaffney did not elaborate on the mental health issue, and said outside court that he could not discuss it.

A call to Castagana’s federal public defender, Alicia Blanco, was not immediately returned.

The count of sending threats by mail is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Sending false information or hoaxes by mail carries up to five years in prison.

The letters were stuffed inside envelopes sold from a Woodland Hills post office, the FBI said. Investigators determined that someone who bought envelopes from that post office also bought a money order, whose identification number was registered to Castagana.

Authorities said federal agents watched Castagana walk from his home to a public mailbox Thursday and deposit several letters. One was allegedly addressed to someone who had been previously targeted and contained white powder.