Suspect Shot In Police Chase Dies

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Suspect Shot In Police Chase Dies

POSTED: 11:53 am CDT April 29, 2008
UPDATED: 5:54 pm CDT April 29, 2008

HOUSTON -- A man died Tuesday afternoon after leading police on a high-speed chase throughout Houston that ended in gunfire, KPRC Local 2 reported.

Investigators said officers stopped a driver for speeding on the South Freeway near Orem Drive on Tuesday morning and he took off.

Detectives said the chase went onto the North and Katy freeways before the driver got onto the West Loop. The motorist eventually stopped the SUV on the southbound feeder road of the West Loop near Post Oak Boulevard about 50 minutes later, police said.

There was a short standoff and officers tried to break out the window on the passenger's side of the SUV.

Officials said the driver did not respond to initial commands to exit the vehicle.

"This went back and forth with the officers trying to get the guy to roll down his window, show his hands and exit the vehicle," said Sgt. John Chomiak with the Houston Police Department.

When he did step out, the driver reached for something under the driver's seat, officials said.

Police said they spotted a shiny object, and Sgt. A.J. Washington and Officer C.A. Foster fired once, hitting the man.

"They see the suspect exit the vehicle, turn around, reach down underneath the driver's seat and that's when the officers shot," Chomiak said.

The man then tumbled out of the vehicle and fell to the ground. Officers handcuffed the driver, who lay motionless on the pavement until an ambulance arrived. Officers leaned down and spoke to him as they waited for the ambulance to arrive.

The driver, whose name was not released, died at Ben Taub Hospital. He was only identified as a 52-year-old man.

Investigators said two handguns and a shotgun were found inside the SUV, including one that was within the driver's reach.

No vehicles were hit during the chase.

Traffic along the West Loop South was backed up for miles while police conducted an investigation on the frontage road and shut down the busy area for more than three hours.

http://www.click2houston.com/news/16058336/detail.html

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Chase Suspect's Family Stands Behind CIA Claims

By Elizabeth Scarborough

POSTED: 6:45 am CDT May 1, 2008

HOUSTON -- The family of a man who was fatally shot after leading police on a 45-minute-long chase through Houston is standing behind his claims of working for the CIA, KPRC Local 2 reported Wednesday.

His family is first to admit that Roland Carnaby had secrets.

"I think we don't know everything about Roland," brother-in-law Robert Kouts said. "There's always been a question of what he did specifically, but we never questioned that he did contract work for the government."

Relatives said he was a patriot, working for the federal government.

"He's no fraud," said Kouts. "The reason that's important is that he poured his life into this."

His family showed KPRC Local 2 plaque after plaque as proof of his work.

"Who would make up all of these plaques?" said Kouts. "He must have two dozen, one from each mission."

Houston police said they found CIA identification in his Jeep, but question whether it's authentic.

"They could have been made up," Capt. Steve Jett said. "It's amazing what you can do with a computer."

Carnaby's life ended after he led police on a chase.

He was pulled over initially for a traffic stop at 288 and Orem, but took off when police asked to see his handgun permit.

The chase ended on the West Loop near Post Oak Boulevard. After a standoff, two officers shot Carnaby because they believed they saw something shiny in his hand.

Investigators said they found three guns in the SUV, but believe Carnaby was holding his phone.

Former CIA officer David Adler said that behavior does not fit with his job.

"There's no legitimate reason for anyone who's CIA in the United States not to comply with local law enforcement's requests."

His family also questioned his behavior.

"I don't know. I've thought about that and why," said Kouts.

Relatives said they do not question the identity of the man they loved.

"He's one of a kind," Kouts said. "He's one of the most interesting people you'll ever know."

http://www.click2houston.com/news/16103193/detail.html

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Credentials Show Chase Suspect In CIA

POSTED: 4:40 pm CDT April 30, 2008
UPDATED: 5:10 pm CDT April 30, 2008

HOUSTON -- Police are trying to verify whether a man officers shot and killed after a chase was a CIA agent," KPRC Local 2 reported on Wednesday.

Investigators found credentials that showed Roland Carnaby, 52, worked for the Central Intelligence Agency.

Carnaby died after a nearly hour-long police chase Tuesday morning that started on Highway 288 and ended on Woodway.

Friends and family said there was proof inside Carnaby's SUV that he was an intelligence officer, as they claimed.

Investigators are working to verify the documents and Carnaby's real identity.

"There are credentials in the car that we have seized and that was the indication -- that he worked with the CIA," said Capt. Steve Jett with the Houston Police Department.

Police said a top CIA official was headed to Houston to verify the documents. The CIA did not comment.

"They could have been made up. They look authentic, but you can do a lot of things with a computer," Jett said.

As condolences poured into the Carnaby home in Pearland, his family proudly showed off pictures, plaques and other mementos that they said confirmed Carnaby's distinguished service to his country.

The family said the reason for all the confusion was that Carnaby went by other names. A book signed by the former director of the CIA was autographed to "Tony" -- one of his aliases.

"Mr. Carnaby never mentioned to me that he was a CIA agent," said David Adler, a former CIA officer.

Adler said he recently met Carnaby at a dinner for the local chapter for the Association of Intelligence Officers. Carnaby was the president.

"He certainly seemed like a nice guy. He did not strike me as irrational or unusual," Adler said.

Adler said he was stunned by Tuesday's chase and shooting. He said Carnaby's bizarre actions are an example of how someone in the CIA would not behave.

"There is no legitimate reason for a CIA officer in the U.S. to have weapons in his car. And certainly, there's no legitimate reason for a CIA officer in the U.S. to not comply with uniformed local law enforcement officers," Adler said. "They certainly don't engage in this sort of dangerous behavior that happened yesterday."

Police said that they believe Carnaby was reaching for a cell phone and not one of the three weapons in his car, as first thought.

"He did not grab the gun. The officers presumed that's what he was grabbing and the pistol was in relatively close proximity to where he was reaching," Jett said.

Carnaby had a concealed carry permit, which would not be needed if he were an intelligence agent.

His family released the following statement.

"He lived and breathed his work, loved his country and risked his life for it on an ongoing basis. My family and his associates in the intelligence community believe he deserves real acknowledgement for his many years of service," said Robert A. Kouts, Carnaby's brother-in-law.

http://www.click2houston.com/news/16090480/detail.html

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Mystery widens in case of ‘CIA operative’ gunned down by police

12:24 PM CDT on Thursday, May 1, 2008


By Shern-Min Chow & Jeremy Desel / 11 News

HOUSTON -- Was Roland Carnaby a member of the U.S. intelligence community or a would-be spy? The mystery widens in the case of the man who claimed to be a CIA operative who was shot and killed by Houston police following a high-speed chase on Tuesday.

In fact, the only thing sure about the mystery surrounding Carnaby is that chase and fatal shooting.

"When we do an investigation like this and you have so much mystery involved,” said Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt, who said he didn’t know who Carnaby was, even after a photo of the two from a Houston Policeman’s Ball was given to 11 News by Carnaby’s family. “And the fact that the individual is dead, and we want to make sure that we are doing a good job and give you accurate information."

The question of accuracy is key in this case, because so far much about Carnaby’s life is shrouded in mystery.

His family claims he was a long time CIA contractor. Certificates and distinctions from what appear to be service all over the globe to prove it.

HPD said he did have what appear to be federal credentials of some kind.

"There are credentials in the car that we have seized,” said HPD Capt. Steve Jett. “That was the indication that he worked for the CIA. They look authentic, but you can do a lot of things with a computer."

To that end, Houston police said a CIA official would be meeting with investigators to review the identification as well as assist HPD with the case.

Officially, the FBI and CIA say that Carnaby was not an officer. A spokesman for the intelligence agency went as far as to make it a point that while the agency doesn’t normally confirm or deny a person’s employment with the CIA, “he was never a CIA officer.”

David Adler for sure worked for the CIA. He said the biggest question is the hardest to answer.

“It is almost impossible to find out if somebody claims to be an intelligence officer, if they really were unfortunately,” said Adler.

Adler was a case officer with the intelligence agency for five years and has met Carnaby.

He said there are many misconceptions about the CIA and that an officer’s goal is to be low-key.

“If you walk into a casino, and everyone knows your name is James Bond, you’re not doing your job,” he said.

When Adler looked at Carnaby’s things, he noticed details that might have slipped by a layperson.

“This word ‘completion’ is spelled wrong,” Adler said, pointing to one of the mementos and noting something off about another. ”There is no ‘Iraq Division’ of the CIA.”

Family provided photo

Roland Carnaby, left, is shown in this undated photo with Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt taken at a HPD Policeman's Ball.

Still, Carnaby’s family is convinced he was what he claimed to be.

“He was a contract employee who worked for decades with the CIA and different federal government agencies,” the family said.

The CIA denied that Carnaby was an employee, but the family said that’s to be expected.

“If you are covert, you know from the beginning that the CIA won’t admit to these things,” the family said.

Adler said he’s met a lot of people who claim to be spies.

“I think it is a problem,” he said. “There are people out there who are sort of enamored with that lifestyle and wish to be part of it and portray themselves as part of it. And they are not.”

Adler also said he’s met plenty of people who believe the stories of spy imposters.

Even online, the mystery continued.

11 News found blogs that have now been deleted but are archived by the search engine Google.

One caught our eye: "One of the CIA's former counter-terrorism chiefs and pioneers in covert operations, Roland Carnaby retires,” the posting read.

The posting was created in February and saved by Google in March.

It continued: "The departure of Mr. Carnaby, 52, would mean the loss of the CIA's most experienced, talented and high profile clandestine officers in management."

It is no doubt a mysterious blog and proves nothing, as anyone could make a blog posting. It just raises more questions.

No matter the ultimate answer to Roland Carnaby's background, another issue troubles Adler.

“There just doesn't seem to be any legitimate basis for behaving the way he did in the last hour of his life,” he said.

In Thursday’s online editions of the Houston Chronicle, Sha’rie Burch – an ex-wife of Carnaby’s – said much of his background struck her as odd.

Burch told the Chronicle that when she pressed him for details on what he did for the CIA, he became defensive. They eventually divorced in part, said Burch, because he had an ill temper.

Carnaby’s ex-wife did confirm he had many friends in law enforcement and claimed in her interview with the Chronicle that former Harris County Sheriff Johnny Klevenhagen was the best man at their wedding in 1986. Klevenhagen died in 1999.

The Houston Chronicle also reported that Burch said Carnaby’s family was a wealthy Lebanese family in the shipping business.

On Wednesday, Carnaby’s family said his parents were flying in from Beirut and are asking for their son to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

The newspaper also said Carnaby had a clean criminal record with the exception of a couple of speeding tickets. One of those citations, incidentally, was issued last summer in Fairfax, Va., which is just 14 miles from Langley, Va. – the home of CIA headquarters.

http://www.khou.com/news/local/stori....b6bd990f.html

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May 1, 2008, 9:04AM

Was it a spy, or would-be spy, in that SUV?

Despite CIA mementos and other evidence, Roland Carnaby's life remains an enigma

By LINDSAY WISE, DALE LEZON and MIKE TOLSON



Much about Roland Carnaby's life speaks to a long career as a devoted intelligence officer — from his effort to build a local chapter of the professional association to his personal friendships with current and former members of the intelligence community to his respect and affection for law enforcement and its dignitaries.

His home in Pearland is filled with pieces of his patriotic past. Plaques honor his years of service to the Central Intelligence Agency. A book written by former CIA Director George Tenet is inscribed with a warm and playful message. Photos of him at CIA headquarters, in front of military aircraft and with various dignitaries are prominently displayed.

A small room off the front foyer was Carnaby's study. There's an American flag on the wall and a "CIA" coffee mug on the desk.

Now, in the wake of his strange death Tuesday at the conclusion of a high-speed police chase, doubts have been raised about his oft-projected persona as a CIA operative by the agency itself. It bluntly disavowed employing him. Might the denial be little more than standard operating procedure, as his wife suggests? Or could it be that he spent years constructing an elaborate fraud, with a home filled more with artifice than artifacts?

When his wife, Susan, was asked if she now thinks it possible her husband could have been lying to her for more than a decade, she hesitated.

"How would you know?" she replied quietly. "How would you know if what anybody told you was true?"

As family and friends gathered to mourn his loss, her wavering confidence loomed large. A day after police shot him as he made an ill-advised move upon exiting his SUV, the Carnaby that so many thought they knew had become a shadowy figure, one who apparently concealed from his wife his true whereabouts and from his friends many of the pertinent details of his private life. Even some who stand by him admit they never got to know him really well.

"He never really wanted to talk about his personal life," said one friend who asked not to be named. "Obviously there are some missing pieces."

This friend, and others, remain loyal, both to the warm and engaging man they knew and to the intelligence agent he claimed to be. They insist his bona fides were too solid and his recognition by former intelligence personnel too genuine for him to be a fake. A caller identifying himself only as "Chuck" and responding to an inquiry sent to chapters of the Association for Intelligence Officers insisted Carnaby worked with the CIA in the 1980s in its Soviet Union unit.

The CIA disputes this, which if true means that the agency identification he carried with him at the time of his death and which he occasionally flashed to friends and law enforcement officers would have been bogus.

"While we do not as a rule publicly deny or confirm employment, I will tell you in this case that Mr. Carnaby was not an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency," CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said. "He was never a CIA officer."

Wife doubts CIA denial

Of course, the denial doesn't prove that the agency never used him as a contractor. Carnaby was fluent in many languages, family and friends say, including Arabic and French, and could have been useful in the Mideast, especially in the waning days of the Cold War.

Susan Carnaby does not put much stock in the CIA denial.

"No, because why would they even admit it?" she said. "How many cases could that blow? I think that's not their policy to make comments on that type of thing. Roland always told me that if anything ever happened to him don't expect anyone to stand up and say that's what he did for a living. They keep these things undercover for a reason."

A former wife, however, is less convinced. Sha'rie Burch, who lives in Willis, said much about her ex-husband struck her as odd when they were married. He told her he worked with the CIA and even had a small badge, but never explained what he did. If she asked for more details, she said, he'd get defensive and not answer.

"He had very big, tall stories that were hard to believe," Burch said. "It was kind of a suspicious thing."

Port Authority connection

On the other hand, he was friends with local federal agents and they often came to the couple's Spring home for dinner, Burch said. The couple had private dinners with the head of the Houston Port Authority, she said, and Carnaby also was close friends with former Harris County Sheriff Johnny Klevenhagen, who she said was best man at their wedding in 1986.

Klevenhagen died in 1999.

The Port Authority connection could make sense for a strictly commercial reason. Carnaby's family, which used the different spelling of Karnabe, was involved in the shipping industry, which was the apparent source of his considerable but undetermined income. He paid cash for his cars.

Burch said she first met him when she was about 19. Friends introduced them. He was 10 years older, drove a Ferrari and boasted about his family homes in New York and Geneva.

He was the son of a wealthy Lebanese family that owns a shipping business, she said. She said he told her that he was born and raised in New York City.

His father, Vincent Said Carnaby, was a Lebanese ambassador to several countries, she said, and son Roland worked for the family business and often traveled for business.

He and Burch divorced in 1993. Part of the reason, she said, was his hot temper.

By the time of their divorce, Carnaby already had another romance brewing. A petite woman with curly brown hair and glasses, Susan Carnaby teaches eighth grade in Northshore. The 55-year-old met her husband about 17 years ago when she worked as the manager of a men's store in the Galleria.

She described him as a gentleman, worldly and traveled.

"He's one of those people who's very unique, very vibrant, the life of the party, knows everybody," she said. "He likes to be around people. He's a people person."

He told her he was a CIA agent and she had no reason to doubt him, she said.

After dating for about five years, the couple married in Las Vegas on Nov. 10, 1997. "He planned the whole thing," she said.

Susan Carnaby said her husband often traveled overseas, leaving for months at a time. If he was in Washington, he would tell her, but most of the time she had no idea where he had gone, she said. It was top secret, he told her.

The last time she saw her husband was in March, she said.

The news that he was in town when he was supposedly traveling, and the mention of a supposed fiancee, stunned her when she learned it after his death. She said she and her husband were not separated.

"Not as far as I know," she said, adding that the couple just moved into their new house in Pearland last June. "All his things are here."

Police Wednesday were still trying to fit together the series of events that ended when Carnaby was shot by officers who surrounded his vehicle after a chase that ended near the Galleria.

During the chase, Carnaby called a friend on his cell phone. The friend, whom police have not identified, was supposed to have lunch with Carnaby that day.

"The guy was telling him, 'You need to pull over. You need to do what the officers are telling you,' " said Capt. Steve Jett, commander of HPD's homicide division. "His answer was, 'I can't.' "

Tapes back HPD's account

Police don't know why Carnaby felt unable to comply with the officers' demands. He appeared shaky and nervous when pulled over for speeding on Texas 288 near West Orem. He presented a card identifying himself as a CIA employee.

The card was laminated and bore the seal of the espionage agency.

Police said they are waiting for federal officials to determine if the document was legitimate or a fabrication.

Investigators said the three weapons discovered in his car appeared to be Carnaby's and were legally owned. One pistol was under the passenger-side floor mat while a second was between the seats. A pistol-grip shotgun was on the floor board of the back seat. Jett said a round was in the shotgun and the safety was off.

"All he would have to do was reach over the console and pick it up," Jett said.

The officers told investigators they feared for their safety when he reached back into the Jeep for what turned out to be a "shiny" personal assistant-cellular phone.

Jett said there is video and audio that backs up the officers' contention that Carnaby acted "erratically," before making a "very quick overt move" toward an officer.

He said the HPD would probably seek to prevent release of the audio and video until the investigation concludes.

"We have no idea why he ran. We are investigating that," he said. "He was very nervous. The officer said that he was shaking, and the officer didn't understand because most law enforcement would have been friendly."

A review of public records showed that Carnaby had a clean record save for two speeding tickets, including one last summer in Fairfax, Va.

This is G o o g l e's cache of http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5744733.html

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Alan Premel has been linked to Roland Carnaby on a number of Internet sites




May 11, 2008, 7:36AM

Blogs, 'CIA brother' spin zest into Carnaby mystery

Friend's ex-wife calls claims about spy work hogwash


By MIKE TOLSON


When it comes to Roland Carnaby, the truth is out there — way out there.

So far out that you reach the blogosphere before finding anything that publicly connects him to his beloved Central Intelligence Agency, which he claimed to still patriotically serve when Houston police shot him down at the end of a crosstown chase on April 29.

But even that obscure, blog-world confirmation is not what it seems to be, which is pretty much what you get with Carnaby, the curious 52-year-old son of Lebanese parents who spent much of his time in bars and restaurants dropping broad hints that he was somebody, or something, else.

The "proof" of his tie to the CIA — denied repeatedly by the agency itself — comes indirectly through a Houston man, Alan Premel, who supposedly served with him and who has been linked to him on numerous Internet sites. If one believes the various posts about him, Premel is a former CIA wunderkind who won the agency's highest award for valor before a nasty separation and lawsuit that netted him a multimillion dollar settlement.

Those posts are made on obscure blogs that ceased shortly after posting articles about Premel or in the reader comment sections of better-known, ongoing blogs. A few appear in comment sections of legitimate stories posted on mainstream news media sites.

Taken together they give a whiff of credibility to the assertions of Carnaby's friends that he was the agent he claimed to be, especially considering they were made long before Carnaby was killed.

One of them, at the short-lived papparazzipress.com, refers to Carnaby as one of "CIA's most experienced, talented and high-profile clandestine officers." Another mentions Premel as a "battle hardened and battle tested CIA war hero" who was "the youngest supervisor to ever head a task force."

Shortly after Carnaby's death, Premel's personal page on MySpace.com displayed a photo of him with Carnaby — or "Tony" as he was known to most of his friends — pasted in front of a CIA seal along with the words:

"We lost Tony. RIP my great brother. I will see you soon."

Plenty impressive. But is any of it true?

Premel's former wife spent years enmeshed in his claims of being a spook and his sly mentions of CIA intrigue that was too sensitive to divulge. She is familiar with many of the references to Premel and Carnaby in cyberspace, all made through anonymous bloggers or pseudonymous blog readers. She has a simple description for it all.

"A bunch of hogwash," she said.

Amy Carter was married to Premel from 2001 to 2006 and confirmed that he was indeed a friend of Carnaby, whom she recalled meeting at least a dozen times. But not for a minute did she buy into their claims of a secret life of government service. At least with respect to her husband, the entire notion was literally incredible.

A fantasy world

"He brought lying to a new level," Carter said in an interview. "He lives in a fantasy world. As long as everybody follows along with that, he's OK. But when you challenge it, he falls apart."

As for Carnaby, she claimed to know little. But she doubted much.
"I didn't like him," she said. "If for no other reason, he was perpetuating what I knew to be a lie."

At the time Carter was hopeful of saving her marriage. She said she wanted Premel to own up to the CIA fantasy and pushed counseling sessions in the hope of moving past it.

"He never once admitted to the lie," she said. "I have no idea where it originated."

Premel, 32, lives in Atascocita. He would not agree to an interview. But through messages sent in response to queries to his MySpace page, he still vouches for Carnaby's CIA work, at least up until recent months when he said they drifted apart.

"Not only is he what he says he is but he is deeply connected," Premel wrote. "There is a smear campaign out there. CIA is misunderstood as an intelligence agency. What it really is is a covert action agency. Even through death CIA will deny not only officers but professional civilian contractors."

Premel said Carnaby was in Houston because of "shipping stuff" and "port security." He added that the truth about Carnaby's life would be "one of the greatest stories ever told, (but) no one will be hearing it anytime soon."

Conspiracy blogs are not bothering to wait. Carnaby's odd death, combined with Internet references linking him to Premel and top positions at the CIA and an already ingrained suspicion of government and law enforcement, have been more than enough to keep Carnaby alive indefinitely as another piece of an ever-enlarging puzzle.

Among the more interesting claims: He was chasing a suitcase nuclear bomb that had arrived in the U.S. from Israel when he was killed; or he was murdered because he had infiltrated a local Mossad ring.

Carnaby had no shortage of friends in Houston standing up for him in the days following his death. They said he knew too many local law enforcement officials to be a fraud. And he seemed to be too devoted to spycraft and the mission behind it for it to have been a casual interest.

"I mean he lived and ate and slept it, and he could never really get his mind off it," said his brother-in-law, Rob Kouts. "Took his work with him wherever he went, family holidays or whatever. He was just obsessed with his work and his country."

Kouts said he understood why the CIA might have disavowed him, but it nonetheless pained him and his sister, Carnaby's wife Susan. That rejection made it seem as if they had no clue about what sort of person he really was.

" 'We don't know him.' Yeah, right. Then why did they give them this plaque and several like it?" Kouts said, gesturing at a tabletop crowded with CIA mementoes."We always knew that if something happened to him, nobody was going to come forward, at least not with any details. At the end of the day, I don't think they're going to deny it forever."

Not even good fakes

For the agency to say anything at all is unusual. It did not respond to queries about Premel. In Carnaby's case, however, it took the unusual step of denying any current or former association with him. Those of conspiracy bent saw a hidden significance to the quick denial. After all, they say, surely all the plaques of recognition speak louder than official statements to the press.


To Robert Baer, longtime CIA agent turned bestselling author and technical adviser for the Hollywood film Syriana, the plaques in question mean nothing. Shown photos of them via e-mail, Baer said they were fakes, and not even good ones. And for the record, he said he has never heard of Carnaby or Premel, even though the latter's name had been dropped by someone into Baer's Wikipedia biography.

To Sha'rie Burch, one of Carnaby's ex-wives, his life was a case of a fantasy running amok. She never bought his claim to a CIA connection or saw any evidence beyond his assertions. She said whenever she challenged him he would get angry and defensive.

To Carter, Premel's ex, the obsession with spy work and the accumulated props sound all too familiar. She said her ex-husband also had plaques and identification badges.

Premel did not have the money to disappear for long periods of time as Carnaby apparently did, which may explain why Carnaby's wife thought he was out of the country when he actually was in Houston hanging out with friends and reportedly carrying on a romance with another woman.

The Premel of Internet lore — created entirely by anonymous Web postings — is not unlike the vaguely romantic and exciting figure that Carnaby was to his friends. Not only was Premel a CIA hero, but he was writing a book to be titled Way of the Ghost, consulting on Hollywood scripts along with Baer and dating Paris Hilton, actress Rachel McAdams and a former Houston adult movie performer.

He was such a fascinating figure that CNN National Security Correspondent David Ensor did a lengthy interview with him. Never mind that Ensor had left the network at the time the interview supposedly took place.

The porn connection

At least there was some truth to dating a one-time porn actress. Her screen identity, borrowed without permission from an old high school friend, was Syvette Wimberley. Her actual name is Laura Madden, and she met Premel through friends. They went out a few times before she cut off the relationship, said Madden's attorney, Kent Schaffer.


He said he had to send a threatening letter to Premel to stop him from bothering her.

"He boasted about being a government agent, and he was able to disappear people and all that sort of stuff," Schaffer said. "He scared her.

She believed him. I sent him a cease and desist letter, and she never heard from him again."

Where all the postings about Premel came from is a mystery. Carter figures she has a pretty good idea.

"In reality, he's a 32-year-old guy who lives at home with his parents," she said. "He has no money. He has a lot of time. The fantasy world in his head is a lot better than the world he lives in."

Premel does have one connection to the government. He has been charged in county court with misdemeanor theft. He was accused of stealing Apple iPods while a FedEx driver this year and has a court date next week.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5770206.html