Man threatened to murder Kansas Rep. Jake LaTurner in voicemails, federal prosecutors allege
A Kansas man threatened in June to murder Rep. Jake LaTurner, a federal indictment alleges, sparking four months of courtroom proceedings that have drawn virtually no public attention.
A federal grand jury indicted Chase Neill on June 22 on one count of threatening a federal official. Neill was accused of threatening earlier that month to “assault and murder” LaTurner, a Republican representing Kansas’ 2nd Congressional District, which spans most of the eastern parts of the state.
A U.S. magistrate judge found Neill had also made threats of violence against other members of Congress, who weren’t identified in court documents. Neill has only been indicted for allegedly threatening LaTurner.
Neill is alleged to have left a voicemail with LaTurner’s office threatening to kill him, and left other voicemails “indicating his belief that he was obligated by God to issue warnings (and detail the consequences of ignoring those warnings) to certain public figures,” according to a court document.
A proposed witness list offered by prosecutors includes Allen Askew, a LaTurner aide, and lists the custodian of records for the phone company T-Mobile. LaTurner is also listed as a proposed prosecution witness, along with an FBI special agent and a Lawrence Police Department detective.
“Rep. LaTurner is not going to comment on any pending litigation and legal proceedings at this time. Rep. LaTurner’s office will continue to cooperate with local and federal law enforcement on this matter,” LaTurner spokesman Mike Howard said in a statement.
LaTurner was elected to Congress in 2020, after serving as Kansas treasurer. He is running for reelection against Democrat Patrick Schmidt. Beginning with this election, the district includes the northern half of Wyandotte County under the revised boundaries passed by the Kansas Legislature.
Neill’s competency to stand trial is now under evaluation, with the next hearing in the case set for Nov. 8, Election Day. In September, U.S. District Court Judge Holly Teeter ordered a psychological or psychiatric examination. It’s unclear if the examination of Neill, who is being held in the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth, has taken place.
“There is reasonable cause to believe that Mr. Neill has a mental disease and that the mental disease renders him unable to assist properly in his defense,” Teeter wrote in a Sept. 7 order.
Neill is represented by federal public defenders, who declined to comment.
The case against Neill comes as members of Congress and politicians across the country are confronting a rising number of threats and violent rhetoric. In November 2021, a Missouri man was sentenced 2.5 years in prison for threatening to kill Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City Democrat, and Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee.
This story was originally published October 27, 2022 at 3:30 PM.
