Alaska State Troopers have arrested the Seward man accused of threatening to blow up Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s office, who now faces federal charges in the case.
Troopers said in an online dispatch that Matthew Edward Stanley, 22, was arrested Wednesday in Seward by a team of troopers, along with members of the Alaska Bureau of Investigations and the federal Department of Homeland Security. A federal warrant against him included counts of making a threat involving explosives, sending false information and hoaxes, and aggravated identity theft.
Stanley was initially issued a court summons on state charges of terroristic threatening, after he allegedly sent an April 12 message to Dunleavy’s office threatening to “bomb and shoot” it. The message was marked as being from the father of a man who once worked with Stanley, and included a demand that Dunleavy raise pay for members of their union. But troopers visited Seward and soon determined that neither the father nor the son was the author.
Troopers said email evidence linked Stanley to the message, as well as searches on his Google account such as “what happens when a state governor gets threatened” and “do state governor take threats seriously.”
An Aug. 21 federal indictment of Stanley said that he had also searched for personal information about the father and son, which was included in the message’s signature. After sending the message to Dunleavy’s office, he also allegedly searched for word that the son had been arrested.
Troopers said Stanley was arrested without incident and held without bail. He is currently in custody at the Anchorage Correctional Complex.
Chris Klint is a web producer and breaking news reporter at Alaska Public Media. Reach him at cklint@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Chris here.
