MACHIAS – Federal officials searched residences Down East and sought information from local police Friday about a former Maine man who was arrested in Florida last weekend on charges he threatened to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Washington County Sheriff Donnie Smith confirmed that Secret Service agents stopped by his office on Friday looking for more information on Raymond Hunter Geisel, 22.

A Secret Service affidavit out of Miami charges that Geisel made the threat during a training class for bail bondsmen in Miami in late July, The Associated Press reported.

According to the AP, Geisel denied in a written statement to a Secret Service agent that he ever made those threats.

Geisel may be more than 1,000 miles away in Miami, but he has had previous encounters with law enforcement officials Down East and is remembered here as a militaristic survivalist.

In November 2007, for instance, Geisel was ordered jailed on a misdemeanor charge of violation of a protection order. Information about the protection order and how it was violated were not immediately available Friday, but Washington County jail officials recalled how Geisel reported to jail wearing a bullet proof vest.

Jail records indicate he was wearing a blue bulletproof vest, blue long sleeve shirt, camouflage pants, combat style tan boots and a tan belt. He was carrying a mini voice recorder and had $52 on him. He spent four hours in jail before making bail.

Geisel also spent 24 hours in the county jail in Machias in 2005 on a pretrial felony charge of receiving stolen property. Information about the felony charge was not readily available Friday, but when he showed up at the jail, according to jail records, Geisel had $10 cash on him and was wearing a black belt, black jungle boots, a pair of camouflage pants and a green T-shirt. He also was carrying his passport.

According to a copy of the November 2007 Washington County Sheriff’s Personal Information Report, Geisel listed his address as 12 Marion Drive, Hampden. He also indicated that he was born in Bangor and was a student.

On the report, he identified Susanne Kynast of 7 Salem St. in Machias as his friend and emergency contact.

Officials at the Machias town office confirmed that a federal official from U.S. Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms asked them for and was given directions to 7 Salem St. The town officials said the property belongs to Kynast.

Attempts to reach Kynast by telephone at her Machias home Friday only resulted in busy signals. An Associated Press story out of Miami indicated Friday that she was in Florida living on a houseboat that she had been sharing with Geisel.

Federal agents also visited the East Machias Town Office on Friday, but local officials there declined to say why. The agents also stopped at the District Attorney’s Office in Machias to look at the file on Geisel.

Machias Assistant District Attorney Joelle Pratt said Friday she was familiar with Geisel and she recalled, “He got arrested several times” for violations ranging from criminal speeding to violation of a protection order.

“He had an attorney out of Bangor from Mad Dog Security,” she said. “The law enforcement people know way more about this than I do.”

Geisel also has had run-ins with the law in the Bangor area.

Geisel was charged with criminal threatening and terrorizing in Hampden during October 2007 after holding a knife to the throat of his older brother, according to Cpl. Chris Bailey, of the Hampden Police Department.

Through a plea agreement with the Penobscot County District Attorney’s Office, Geisel agreed to plead guilty to the threatening charge in exchange for the DA’s office dropping the terrorizing charge, Hampden police Sgt. Scott Webber said Thursday.

Geisel spent 48 hours in Penobscot County Jail during April 2008 for the crime and paid a $250 fine.

“Every agency in the general area has dealt with him for one thing or another,” Webber said.

Bailey added Friday that Geisel has “been known to have weapons and ammunition” on his person.

According to previously published listings and articles in the Bangor Daily News, Geisel grew up in Winterport and attended high school at Hampden Academy, where he earned honor roll status as a freshman and as a sophomore.

His mother, Linda Geisel, was one of the outspoken parents who voiced opposition in 1993 to a timeout area called “The Box” at the Leroy H. Smith School in Winterport after his older brother, Carsten, was placed in the box for fighting with another pupil.

Linda Geisel’s issues with the SAD 22 school system continued for several years to the point where she pulled both Carsten and Raymond out of school and had to be forced by the state in October 1997 to re-enroll them. During a weeklong hearing conducted that fall by the Maine Department of Education, Linda Geisel asked that past and future medical bills for both boys, specifically psychological exams, be paid for by the district, which was denied.

The Secret Service affidavit said Geisel told agents that he suffered from psychiatric problems including post-traumatic stress disorder, but he couldn’t provide the names of any facilities where he sought treatment.

BDN writer Nok-Noi Ricker contributed to this report.

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