OIG News Release, 2001-079, Former NASA Contractor Indicted for Threatening George Bush and Others

On July 10, 2001, Douglas F. Starfield of Fairmont, West Virginia, was
indicted by a Federal Grand Jury in Clarksburg, West Virginia, on one
count of making threats to inflict bodily harm upon then President-
elect George W. Bush in violation of Title 18, Section 871(a), United
States Code. Starfield was also indicted on two counts of transmitting
communications containing threats to injure the persons of others, in
violation of Title 18, Section 875(c), United States Code.

Starfield, a former employee of Galaxy Global Corporation, Inc. at NASA’s
Independent Verification and Validation facility in Fairmont, West
Virginia, allegedly sent several threatening electronic mail messages
from his NASA computer system between December 2000 and January 2001.
These messages contained implied and direct threats of bodily harm
against then President-elect George W. Bush, the Sheriff of Humboldt
County, California, and the Chief Executive Officer of Boise Cascade
Corporation.

Special Agents of the NASA Office of Inspector General’s Network and
Advanced Technologies Protection Office, Computer Crimes Division
(CCD), the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the United States
Secret Service conducted the investigation. Investigators of the
Marion County West Virginia Sheriff’s Department and the Fairmont West
Virginia Police Department assisted with the investigation. The
prosecution is being handled by Robert McWilliams, Assistant United
States Attorney, Northern District of West Virginia, in Wheeling.

For more information on this release, please call Stephen J. Nesbitt,
CCD Director of Operations, at (202) 358-2576.