Motive for bomb threats unclear
By Kurt Nesbitt — Staff WriterNEW ULM - The motive for a series of letters that made bomb threats against 16 southern Minnesota post offices seems unclear.
Postal employees in New Ulm say they have never heard of Christina Anne Reineke, the 38 year-old Faribault woman accused of sending the first eight letters from New Ulm on Feb. 4 and the rest from Faribault on March 14, and that they never heard Reineke lodge a complaint about the postal service.
U.S. Attorney's Office public affairs specialist David Anderson declined to comment on any motive Reineke may have had for writing the letters. He said no motive was listed in either the criminal complaint or the affidavit, which are the public records for the case.
"...And I'm limited to what's in the public record," he stated.
Reineke was temporarily detained following her first appearance in U.S. District Court in St. Paul on Thursday afternoon. Court staff said no bail was set during the hearing. She was represented by the U.S. Public Defender's Office.
Anderson said the court can rule a person detained until their arraignment or until an indictment is returned against them, depending on which direction the court chooses to take. He said Reineke is presently still in custody.
She is accused of two counts of mailing threatening communications, which has a maximum sentence of five years in prison for each count.
Reineke was serving probation for a 2007 terroristic threats conviction, in which she admitted she sent threatening letters to two state representatives and the mayor of the city of Austin. She received five concurrent sentences for three counts of terroristic threats, one count of forgery and one count of fraud and was sentenced to serve 27 months in the custody of the Minnesota Department of Corrections.
Eric Herendeen, the assistant Mower County attorney who prosecuted the case in 2007, said Reineke's motive for sending the letters "never came out". He described the case as "bizarre. You never get cases like that."
Austin attorney Evan Larson was Reineke's defense attorney in that case. He said he could not comment on any motives she may have had because he could not specifically recall the case and because he has not had any contact with Reineke since her sentencing, which court records say took place on May 11, 2007 in Austin. He said he no longer has the case file.
A Department of Corrections representative said Reineke began serving the five concurrent sentences on May 11, 2007. She reached her court-ordered release date from the state correctional facility in Shakopee on Nov. 12, 2008 and was placed on intensive supervised release, the highest form of supervision, after that date.
Four of the five sentences she received in May 2007 have expired, except the 27-month sentence for the terroristic threats against the Austin mayor and the two state legislators.
She was approved to live in an alternative structured supervision placement in New Ulm on Nov. 19, 2008 and was approved to live in another such placement in Faribault on Feb. 17, 2009.
According to the affidavit filed in U.S. District Court on Thursday by a postal inspector, Reineke was living at an address in New Ulm at the time she wrote and mailed the first eigth letters on Feb. 4, 2009. She was arrested there following a search by her probation agent on March 27, 2009.
State licensure records said the house is presently licensed by the state as a residential treatment facility for adults with mental illness.
Reineke's probation officer, Molly Bice, said she could not answer any questions about the incident because she has been instructed not to talk about it.
The Austin Daily Herald reported Reineke claimed in a 2007 interview that she suffers from borderline personality disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression.
According to state court records, authorities in Rice County sought civil commitments for Reineke as mentally ill five separate times between 1999 and 2006. Hennepin County also sought a committment for her in 1991.
Previously, Reineke served a 21-month sentence for terroristic threats on Jan. 20, 2004. She was released from prison on May 16, 2005 and her sentence expired on Aug. 30, 2005.
|
LJGibbs
|
|
|---|---|
|
04-05-09 11:55 AM
|
Agreed SarahM. It sounds from other sources that agencies tried to have her committed and she was always released early. With all the senseless acts of violence going on, I think we need to get our legislators to put money back in to mental health care and re-open the State Hospitals to full capacity. And give the Dr's some resources to keep the people long enough.
|
|
SarahM
|
|
|
04-04-09 10:26 PM
|
She's mentally ill and some are questioning a motive? With mental illness there is no motive, nothing makes sense. Keeping society and the person safe need to be the main goals...
|
|
Hippie
|
|
|
04-04-09 10:34 AM
|
How come she was never committed to St Peter. She is a threat to all of us.
|