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Defendant held until trial

• Timothy Scott Chastain asked the Thomas County Sheriff to investigate U.S. Attorney General Robert Mukasey.

J.D. Sumner

ALBANY — A man who claimed that a federal revenue officer owed him $21 million in debts wrote a letter to Congress asking for the right to "use deadly force" on his federal prosecutor, officials with the U.S. Attorney's office said.

Timothy Scott Chastain was remanded into the custody of the U.S. Marshal's Service until trial next Thursday by U.S. Magistrate Richard Hodge after a pretrial detention hearing at the C.B. King Federal Courthouse.

Originally indicted for attempting to interfere with the administration of Internal Revenue laws, Chastain was initially arrested for filing a false financial statement with the Dougherty County Clerk's office claiming that Valerie Williams, a federal revenue officer, owed him $21 million in debts.

But while on supervised release awaiting his trial on that indictment, Chastain allegedly filed a series of documents claiming that the federal government was in violation of Georgia law and, in one instance, asking the U.S. Congress to allow him to "use deadly force" to protect himself from the Assistant U.S. Attorney Allen Dasher.

During his hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Crane called Chastain a credible threat and pointed to a number of instances where he showed actions Crane believed to be indicative of the threat.

In one of those cases, Chastain was pepper-sprayed and forcibly removed from his vehicle by Georgia State Trooper during a traffic stop.

But it was Chastain's letters to the Thomas County Sheriff's Office and members of Congress that Crane said were a means to intimidate the U.S. Attorney's Office.

In one letter, Chastain asked the Thomas County Sheriff's office to investigate U.S. Attorney General Robert Mukasey and Dasher for violation of state laws, Crane said.

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