Overland Park Man Charged with Making Second Anthrax Threat

TOPEKA, KS—John Philip Barker, 47, Overland Park, Kan, has been charged with sending an assistant U.S. Attorney in Kansas a letter containing a white powder he claimed was anthrax, U.S. Attorney Lanny Welch said today.

According to a criminal complaint, on Aug. 19, 2009, Barker mailed a letter with an envelope containing a white substance and a scrap of notebook paper bearing the handwritten words (including misspelling):

YOU HAVE BEEN EXPOSED
TO ANTRAX
DIE

The Assistant U.S. Attorney to whom the letter was addressed had prosecuted Baker for making a similar threat in June 2008 in a letter to the Internal Revenue Service in Austin Texas. In that case, Barker was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison.

If convicted in the new case, Barker faces a maximum penalty of 5 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,0000. The Federal Bureau of Investigation worked on the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Hendershot is prosecuting.

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