An East County man will go on trial next week in federal court, accused of threatening then-presidential candidate Barack Obama last fall.
On Tuesday, Walter Edward Bagdasarian will be in U.S. District Court in San Diego, accused of “knowingly and willfully threatening to kill and inflict bodily injury upon Barack Obama, a major candidate for the office of president of the United States of America,” according to court documents.
On Oct. 22 of last year, according to a probable-cause affidavit, messages filled with racial slurs about Obama were posted on the Yahoo Finance Web site from a computer investigators said they traced to Bagdasarian's wife, Regina.
Court documents allege the messages were posted by somebody identified as “californiaradial,” a user name that agents said Walter Bagdasarian admitted to using when they interviewed him last November.
Investigators also said Walter Bagdasarian admitting posting the messages, which court documents quote as saying (profanity has been edited):
"Shoot the n--. Country f----- for another 4+ years, what n-- has done ANYTHING right???? Long Term???? Never in history, except s-mbos." As well as, "F--- the n-----, he will have a 50 cal in the head soon."
Secret Service agents said that when they raided Bagdasarian's La Mesa home three days after they questioned him in November, they found six firearms and a total of 500 rounds of ammunition in each caliber.
Attempts to reach Bagdasarian at his home on Friday were unsuccessful, and his attorney Ezekiel E. Cortez did not return a call about the case.
Bagdasarian is currently free on $100,000 bail.
