DOCUMENT: Celebrity, Crime

Mail Threat Hoaxer Sentenced

Man mailed threat letters to 'liberal' targets like Stewart, Pelosi

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Mail Threat Hoaxer Sentenced

FEBRUARY 14--The California man convicted of sending threatening letters containing a white powder to public figures like David Letterman and Jon Stewart has been sentenced to probation and ordered to check into a halfway house, where he will be required to take medications recommended by doctors.

Chad Castagana, 40, will remain in the Gateways Community Corrections Center for as long as staff at the Los Angeles facility deem appropriate, though his stay there cannot exceed his five-year probationary term, according to the below U.S. District Court order. Castagana was also ordered not to contact any of the six recipients of his mailed threats.

Castagana, who has described himself as a 'compulsive' Republican voter, was convicted at trial last year of mailing threatening letters in 2006 to celebrities and politicians he considered too liberal (other recipients were Rep. Nancy Pelosi, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, and Viacom boss Sumner Redstone).

The powder in the Castagana letters--some of which you'll find here--was either baking soda or detergents, which apparently was meant to mimic anthrax. Castagana was sentenced after his examination by a court-appointed psychiatrist, Dr. Saul Faerstein, whose report was not included in public court records. (7 pages)