Prosecutor Says Man Tried to Retrieve Gun Before Sending Threatening Email

Charles Dalzell (Provided by Grand Forks County via the North Dakota Monitor)

(North Dakota Monitor) – Just days before his arrest, a North Dakota man accused of threatening a federal official tried to retrieve a gun that had been confiscated from him, a prosecutor said during a court hearing.

Charles Dalzell, 46, of St. Thomas, made his initial appearance by video from the Grand Forks County jail before Magistrate Judge Alice Senechal at the federal courthouse in Fargo.

Dalzell and his attorney, public defender Rhiannon Gorham, requested an immediate hearing to determine if he could be released while awaiting trial on charges of making interstate threats to injure another person and threatening to assault, kidnap or murder a United States official.

In making the case that Dalzell should stay in jail, Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Lee said Dalzell had recently gone to the Pembina County Sheriff’s Office to retrieve a gun that had been confiscated from him in connection with another case.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he’s going to the sheriff’s office to retrieve a firearm,” Lee said.

Dalzell is accused of sending a threatening email Sunday to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in North Dakota that references the shooting death of a Minnesota state representative.

“I don’t want this situation to end up like Minnesota over the weekend,” Dalzell wrote, according to the criminal complaint in the case.