Carson City Sheriff's OfficeDouglas Hoffman
An Arizona man who allegedly threatened to unleash nuclear weapons if Gov. Jim Gibbons didn't intervene in what he perceived as the wrongdoings of a Las Vegas developer was booked this morning into the Carson City Jail.
Douglas Hoffman, 63, is being held on $100,000 bail and was arraigned this morning in Carson City Justice Court.
He was extradited from Arizona and arrived at the Carson City Jail at 2 a.m. today on suspicion of felony charges of conveying false information concerning acts of terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, lethal agents or toxins.
The Nevada Department of Public Safety, Investigation Division detectives contacted the Goodyear Police Department in Arizona requesting Hoffman's arrest and extradition back to Nevada. On March 19, 2010 the Goodyear Police Department arrested Douglas Hoffman on the Nevada warrant without incident.
According to a criminal complaint, Hoffman allegedly sent a letter on behalf of "USA Militia" to Gibbons between April 25, 2007 and May 3, 2007, indicating if the governor did not intervene in what Hoffman saw as criminal behavior by Pulte Homes, a Las Vegas developer, "the militia has many options to rectify restitution to all Pulte victims. Some of which are we can raze entire Pulte communities, conduct drive-bys, torch house after house, use IED methods or unleash our supply of chemical, biological, nuclear mass destruction or all of the above. Make changes, don't (expletive) with us."
According to Las Vegas Review Journal, in 2005, Hoffman cut down and vandalized more than 500 trees because he felt Pulte Homes had built a subdivision that blocked his view of the Las Vegas Strip. In 2007 he was convicted of seven felony counts and three gross misdemeanor counts of malicious destruction of trees on the land of another.
A preliminary hearing is set in Carson City on June 25.