When the mail arrived at the Wayne County District Attorney’s Office on Wednesday (8/16), one of the secretaries began opening an envelope, sent by an inmate from the Marcy Correctional Facility in Marcy, NY.
A white powder fell out of the envelope and the secretary smelled the contents. Also in the envelope was a short letter addressed to Rick Healy, the former Wayne County District Attorney and current Wayne County Judge. The crude letter read: co D.A. Rick Healy
“if u reading this than its OFFICAL that your time is limited. U-probably wondering whatz that powdery substance out once its exposed 2 air, U- have a very short amount of time left. Your Office/building actually was my choice B/C friendz of mines wanted 2 just murder -U- leaving from your gym where I hear -U- pretty good on the treadmill. But why just ·u· when I can get everybody in your immediate area. L.O.L w/just a gram of Anthrax.
Yours Truly
-Signature unreadable-
The envelope was labeled from Marcy Correctional Facility, Marcy, NY. 13403-3600–NAME: Willie J. Freeman
Within moments the letter and envelope garnered much attention. Current DA. Christopher Bokelman, put the envelope inside of a larger envelope and Court Security Supervisor Dawn Pisciotti was called. Pisciotti went upstairs to the DA’s Office and placed the envelope in a large Ziploc bag, then brought the bag down stairs and notified the Sheriff’s Office.
Wayne County Fire Coordinator Richard Bond and Deputy Coordinator Tom Roder, along with Emergency Coordinator George Bastedo, responded to the scene. Debra Trickey and Jeffrey Harloff from the Ontario County Hazmat team were called and responded. It was determined the substance was talcum powder. The powder and envelope taken into evidence.
Sheriff’s Investigator Roger LaClair adopted the case. U.S. Postal Inspectors and Department of Corrections Investigators were notified.
LaClair said he was working to determine and confirm that Freeman was the author of the letter and its content.
Willie Freeman was sentenced in December of 2015 to 26-1/2 to 30 years in state prison following his conviction, following a week-long jury trial, where he represented himself in court. He was convicted of Robbery 1st, 14 years on each on Robbery 2nd (2 counts), 6 years each on Assault (4 counts) all concurrent to each other, with 3 ½ to 7 each on Burglary 3rd (2 counts), all concurrent to each other.
Freeman, now age 32, with a well-known criminal history, did two burglaries at Burnham’s Restaurant and Spanky’s Ice Cream stand in the Village of Lyons businesses that occurred on August 19th in 2015 and a Robbery at the Red Apple convenience store in the Village of Lyons. It was determined that Freeman struck an employee with metal knuckles while stealing packs of cigarettes, which caused a serious injury to a female employee. Rick Healy handled the prosecution of Freeman.
Healy said he was concerned about the letter Freeman inserted claiming “friendz of mines wanted 2 just murder -U- leaving from your gym where I hear -U- pretty good on the treadmill.”
County officials said that, although Freeman had no chance of obtaining anthrax while in state prison, other chemicals such as fentanyl could cause physical harm to anyone coming into contact with it.
Fentanyl and its analogs pose a potential hazard to law enforcement, public health workers, and first responders who could unknowingly come into contact with these drugs in their different forms. Police working dogs are also at risk of exposure. While dermal absorption of fentanyl commonly occurs through prescribed use of the drug, inhalation of powder is the most likely exposure route for illicitly-manufactured fentanyl. Inhalation exposure can quickly result in respiratory depression. Law enforcement personnel may come into contact with these drugs on the street during the course of law enforcement activities. The DEA recommends that officers do not field test drugs if fentanyl is suspected. The substance should be collected and sent to a laboratory for analysis.
Wayne County Administrator, Rick House, said he was notified of the incident at the DA’s office about a half hour after the incident. “At that juncture, the horse was already out of the barn.” He admitted that, had it been anthrax, or some potent airborne contaminate, it would have already travelled through the air duct system and possibly infected many people exiting and entering the building. House said the County had not addressed, nor had a plan in place for handling mail with possible contaminated materials. “This is now a priority of mine,” added House.
Wayne County Sheriff Barry Virts said his office has procedures in place for handling mail coming into the jail facility. Corrections officers are familiar with the possibility that inmate mail may have hidden drugs under stamps, in the seal of an envelope, or hidden in the pages of a letter. Stamps are often removed and mail screened to prevent such things as LSD from entering the jail.
Sheriff Virts said he also favored installing something similar to a scanner used at airports to detect metals using x-ray technology on inmates and mail. He was told by State Corrections that it would put prisoners at risk, due to radiation exposure, even though such exposure is allowed in airports on travellers.
Rick House said that the jail protocol, along with different forms of mail screening will now become a piece of a new County procedure that will also include continual training of county employees on how to handle mail in the future.
After the incident on August 16th, Wayne County Fire Coordinator, Rick Bond was immediately called and knew what to do. “He was “spot on” and went “right by the book”, said House. “Unfortunately, we have to jump on the sword for what happened. It was not good,” admitted House.
Rick Bond said the incident pointed out a few problems that have to be dealt with and he was “not a happy camper” when the call came in. “Everybody had, or received plans, on how to handle this several years ago, but they were either put on a back shelf, or discarded. Bond favors having mail addressed to prime county offices such as the District Attorney, Public Defender and Department of Social Services opened in a closed room by a trained person, so any potential contamination would be contained. “We took this for granted and luckily nobody got hurt. This worked out well for our offices and Ontario County”, said Bond.
As for Freeman, the investigation is continuing and he could be facing many more years of additional prison for either federal, or local convictions from the case.
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