John Boehner's bartender wanted to poison him, says FBI

A Ohio man with an impending mental evaluation has turned himself in for having homicidal thoughts toward House Speaker John Boehner.

|
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, followed by Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Kan., leaves a closed-door meeting of the House Republican Conference, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2015, before heading to the White House today to meet with President Barack Obama.

An Ohio bartender with a history of psychiatric illness was indicted last week on a charge of threatening to murder House Speaker John Boehner, possibly by poisoning his drink, according to records made available Tuesday.

A grand jury indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Ohio on Jan. 7 identified the accused man as Michael R. Hoyt, a resident of Cincinnati.

A separate criminal complaint said Hoyt was fired last fall from his job at a country club in West Chester, Ohio, where he served drinks to Boehner, who is a member.

In a subsequent conversation with a police officer, Hoyt said that before leaving, he "did not have time to put something in John Boehner's drink," according to the complaint.

The court paper also said, "Hoyt told the officer he was Jesus Christ and that he was going to kill Boehner because Boehner was mean to him at the country club and because Boehner is responsible for Ebola."

According to the criminal complaint, Hoyt said he had a loaded Beretta .380 automatic pistol and he was going to shoot Boehner. Hoyt volunteered to be taken to a psychiatric hospital, and police took his weapon.

He is currently being held under a court order for mental evaluation and treatment, and U.S. Capitol Police and the FBI believe he "poses a current and ongoing credible threat" to Boehner, the complaint added.

The complaint says Hoyt was treated for a previous psychotic episode about two years ago. He was prescribed medication "which he voluntarily stopped taking" about six months ago, it added.

As speaker of the House, Boehner is second in line for the presidency in the event of a vacancy. His congressional district includes part of western Ohio.

A spokesman for Boehner, Michael Steel, said the speaker is "aware of the situation and sincerely thanks the FBI, the Capitol Police and the local authorities in Ohio for their efforts."

The Capitol Police could not be reached for immediate comment.

It was not clear why officials waited as long as they did to disclose the charge. The grand jury indictment is dated Jan. 7, but the incident referred to in the papers took place on Oct. 29 of last year, and the complaint itself was filed on Nov. 6.

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to John Boehner's bartender wanted to poison him, says FBI
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2015/0113/John-Boehner-s-bartender-wanted-to-poison-him-says-FBI
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe