A former doctoral candidate at the University currently is being detained at the Charlottesville-Albemarle joint security complex for mailing allegedly threatening communications to 47 addressed recipients, including University officials and members of state and national governments.
Charlottesville resident Charles A. Bly, 52, sent a 10-page signed letter, dated Jan. 1, 2004, accusing University faculty of intellectual property theft of his doctoral research in Nuclear Engineering, as well as other abuses.
The letter included numerous references to a willingness to use firearms to settle the dispute.
Bly's attorney, Willis Spaulding, said Bly currently is charged under the 3rd section of 18 United States Code section 876, which prohibits communications through the mail deemed threatening.
An offender convicted under this statute could face a fine and/or imprisonment of less than five years.
The U.S. Attorney's Office will present the case to a grand jury next week, Spaulding said.
According to the letter, which was signed with Bly's name, a copy of which was obtained by The Cavalier Daily, he accused retired Nuclear Engineering Prof. Roger Rydin of "theft of intellectual property, conflict of interest, insider trading, [and] competition from within [Bly's] own Ph.D. committee."
The letter also accuses Rydin and former University Nuclear Engineering Prof. Jack S. Brenizer of holding him against his will during an alleged 1996 incident in Brenizer's office, and goes on to accuse the University administration of carrying out a "criminal cover-up."
Brenizer currently is a professor at Pennsylvania State.
Beyond these allegations, the letter specifically addressed University Counsel Paul Forch, accusing him of baiting Bly into a "continued meaningless exchange among lawyers" after Bly allegedly tried to reach a settlement with the University via an attorney.
The letter rejects the use of lawyers as a means of settling the dispute.
"Sorry [Forch], bullets are far cheaper and much more decisive," the letter said. "A person with my meager means and abilities can stand at a distance of two football fields and end elements of a long-standing dispute with the twitch of my index finger. Where reason, integrity and honestly fails [sic], willpower is left to decide the outcome. (See the attached target practice that gives evidence of a talent I possess for gun control--hitting the target)."
Included with the letter was a series of targets with apparent bullet holes from Clark Bros. Firearms Service in Warrenton, Va. Several were signed and dated.
The letter continues: "These comments are not to be interpreted as illegal brandishing of a firearm, blackmail or extortion. [...] The comments simply point to an expediency that is available when all civil approaches to the justice I deserve, fail as has been the case. [...] If this remains class warfare, I assure you tragic consequences, because I refuse to be an untouchable amid Brahmins."
The letter details Bly's proposal for a settlement, calling for a series of apologies from University officials and Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner, media advertisements citing the facts of Bly's alleged abuse, an audit to determine other abuses to former and current University students, the removal of University President John T. Casteen, III, a new Nuclear Engineering Ph.D. program for Bly and $533,600 in damages.
According to Spaulding, a jury must decide if Bly's letter is protected under the First Amendment.
"The nature of the alleged threat consists of some oblique and ambiguous references to bullets," Spaulding said. "The issue for the courts to decide is whether [the language of the letter] is perceived to be threatening. Bly is confident that the jury will agree with him that there is no true threat with those words. Reasonable recipients would not perceive a threat."
Spaulding said the targets do not appear to have been made for the purposes of this letter, citing that the targets were dated well before the letters were mailed.
Spaulding also said Bly has no criminal record or history of arrests or convictions.
University Police Chief Michael Coleman said he could not comment on the Bly case as directed by federal regulations.
"We were involved in this investigation and continue to be investigating any situation that may arise from this," Coleman said. "When University Police become aware of any kind of threat, we will investigate and continue to work in conjunction with agencies that have primary or concurrent jurisdiction."
University spokesperson Carol Wood also declined to comment.
"The University does not comment on cases under investigation," Wood said.
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