Maine man accused of sending threatening e-mail

BRUNSWICK – A Brunswick man was arrested early Thursday in connection with a racially charged e-mail sent to Gov. John Baldacci and at least one other member of the Maine delegation to the Democratic National Convention in Denver, police said.

The threatening e-mail from 38-year-old Manuel Aguilar was sent shortly after Democrat Barack Obama was declared the presidential nominee by acclamation, police said.

State police Sgt. Glenn Lang, supervisor of the Maine Computer Crime Task Force, described the e-mail as “a very nasty racial e-mail that would’ve caused anyone who read it to have great concern.” But there was no specific threat against delegates or others, he added.

A member of the Maine delegation alerted police after she received the e-mail in Denver, said David Farmer, Baldacci’s spokesman. The e-mail was sent to a distribution list that included Baldacci, but the governor never received it because it was blocked by a spam filter, Farmer said.

Aguilar, who was arrested early Thursday in Brunswick, is charged with violating a protection order because one of the e-mail recipients was the boss of a former girlfriend who had a protection order, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.

The e-mail was created in a way to make it appear that the sender was Adolf Hitler and Aguilar targeted the racial diatribe against himself, McCausland said.

Aguilar was held in the Cumberland County Jail pending a court appearance Friday. He declined a request from The Associated Press to discuss the matter.

In a statement from Denver, Baldacci said state police, working with federal authorities and local police, reacted quickly to the situation.

“It’s unfortunate that a celebration of the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee was marked by this situation,” Baldacci said. “We take such threatening messages very seriously, and I’m glad that a suspect has been arrested.”