An man who allegedly threatened to unleash nuclear weapons if Gov. Jim Gibbons didn't intervene in a dispute with a Las Vegas developer was booked Friday into the Carson City Jail.
Douglas Hoffman, 63, was extradited from Goodyear, Ariz., and is being held on $100,000 bail on suspicion of felony charges of threatening acts of terrorism.
According to a criminal complaint, Hoffman allegedly sent a letter on behalf of "USA Militia" to Gibbons between April 25 and May 3, 2007, indicating that 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 the 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.