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A former martial arts instructor charged with sending poisoned letters to President Barack Obama and other officials spotted government agents tailing him in the days before his arrest and then tried to dodge them — using tactics that included hiding under a blanket — according to FBI documents released in the case on Thursday.

James Everett Dutschke, 41, of Tupelo, Miss., was arrested at his home on April 27 and charged with mailing letters laced with the nerve agent ricin to Obama, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and county judge Sadie Holland.

The documents released Thursday include FBI applications for warrants in order to get Dutschke’s phone records so they to track his whereabouts — while Dutschke seemed determined to hide.

In the documents, FBI investigators detail Dutschke’s movements while they were trailing him in order to gather evidence.

According to the documents, on April 24, at about 3:30 a.m., Dutschke and his wife Janet left their home in a green van and drove to two different banks, where they appeared to take cash out of ATM machines.

After leaving the second bank, Dutschke and his wife returned to their home. As they left the green van, Dutschke waved at the surveillance team that had been watching him, the documents state.

Then, while investigators moved to get into another position, Dutschke took off in the green van and went missing for about 12 hours, according to the FBI documents.

It wasn’t until 3:15 p.m. that day that agents were again able to find Dutschke and his green van at his former business -- Tupelo Taekwondo Plus.

Dutschke left the martial arts studio at about 8 p.m. that night and got into an acquaintance’s truck and “crouched down in the rear seat of the truck and was covered by blankets,” the FBI said.

“The acquaintance and Dutschke appeared to attempt to elude law enforcement,” the documents state. The two traveled what was described as an “evasive route,” taking two hours to drive only 22 miles from Tupelo to Mantachie, Miss.

A friend of Dutschke's, Kirk Kitchens, told The Associated Press on April 25 that he helped Dutschke sneak away to Kitchens’ home, but he said it was to escape from the news media. Kitchens said he and Dutschke stayed at the home for a while before slipping out through the woods to rendezvous with someone else, who drove Dutschke to another location.

Dutschke, 41, was arrested three days later. He is being held without bond in the case pending action by a federal grand jury. He has denied involvement in the letters.

Dutschke could face the death penalty in the ricin-letters case. Earlier in April, he pleaded not guilty to two child molestation charges.

The FBI investigators say traces of ricin were found on a dust mask and other items seized from Dutschke’s former martial arts studio. FBI agents also said that Dutschke ordered 50 red castor beans — used to make ricin — on eBay last November and December.

Another man, Elvis impersonator Paul Kevin Curtis, was first held in connection with the crime, but charges were later dropped.

Curtis has said that Dutschke was attempting frame him. The two had feuded for years, Curtis said.

Related:

Mississippi man charged with attempted use of a biological weapon in ricin case

A 12-year-old boy accused of fatally stabbing his 8-year-old sister appeared in juvenile court to face murder charges on Wednesday.

The boy was formally charged with second-degree murder in the death of his sister, Leila Fowler. No plea was entered in the brief hearing, NBC station KCRA reported.

Leila Fowler’s death and the boy’s report that an intruder was responsible triggered a two-week manhunt that struck fear into the rural Northern California town of Valley Springs some 60 miles south of Sacramento.

Mark Reichel, an attorney hired by the Fowler family, told The Associated Press after the hearing that the family wants to be left alone.

"As they travel down this incredibly difficult path, they are obviously extremely concerned about their son, who they also dearly love," Reichel said.

Reichel earlier told NBC station KCRA that just because the boy lied doesn’t make him a killer.

Under California law, if the boy is found to have committed the crime, he could be imprisoned until he is 25 years old.

The boy told investigators April 27 — the day of his sister’s death — that he had encountered a random attacker, a tall man with long gray hair,  in the family home while his father was away at a Little League baseball game. 

He said that he startled the man, who fled on foot. The boy said that he then found his sister bleeding.

The girl’s death and the prospect of killer on the loose frightened residents of the Valley Springs and set off a manhunt, with officers going door to door in search for the attacker.

The Calaveras County Sheriff's Office said they spent more than 2,000 man-hours amassing evidence and searching for the man. Some residents even called in reports of seeing a man that fit the description.

Thousands attended a candlelight vigil in Leila's honor.

After the boy’s arrest on Saturday, his father, Barney Fowler, said that he is backing his son.

"Until they have the proper evidence to show it's my son, we're standing behind him," Fowler told the Associated Press. "If they have the evidence, well, that's another story. We're an honest family."

NBC News is not naming the suspect because he is a minor.

Related: 

Boy, 12, charged with second-degree murder in 8-year-old sister's stabbing death

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

Attorney General Eric Holder speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington on Tuesday.

In a major crackdown on healthcare fraud across the country, 89 people, including 14 doctors and nurses, were charged for their roles in various Medicare scams that bilked taxpayers of some $223 million through bogus charges, federal officials said Tuesday.

Some people allegedly posed as doctors and wrote bogus prescriptions for drugs and psychotherapy therapy and then billed the government $12 million.

Others are accused of bribing Medicare patients for their ID numbers, then using those numbers to bill $20 million in home health care never performed or not medically necessary.

The lead suspect in that case used the money to buy luxury cars, including two Lamborghinis and a Ferrari, officials said.

About 400 federal agents were involved in Tuesday's arrests, raiding businesses, seizing documents and charging suspects in Miami, Los Angeles, Houston, New York City, Detroit, Chicago, Tampa, Fla., and Baton Rouge, La.

The dragnet was announced by Attorney General Eric Holder and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius as the latest in a series of busts over the past four years to crack down on fraud that is believed to annually cost Medicare billions of  dollars.

In all the schemes, profit was a driving force, officials said.

“Today's takedown is the latest sign we are beginning to turn the tide on Medicare fraud,” Sebelius said in a news conference.

Holder said during the four-year crackdown by a federal strike force that 1,500 people have been arrested in connection to schemes involving nearly $2 billion in fraudulent billings.

He claimed that $8 dollars are returned to the U.S. Treasury for every dollar spent on the investigations.

Still, he said the battle against health care fraud is being affected by the across-the-board budget cuts called sequestration, which have trimmed $1.6 billion in funding from the Justice Department in the current fiscal year ending Sept. 30.

"Unless Congress adopts a balanced deficit reduction plan and stops the reductions currently slated for 2014, I fear our capacity to protect the American people from healthcare fraud ... will be further reduced," Holder said.

Sebelius said the Affordable Care Act, widely known as Obamacare, gives the government more tools to combat fraud.

“By expanding our authority to suspend Medicare payments and reimbursements when fraud is suspected, the law allows us to better preserve the system and save taxpayer dollars.” Sebelius said. “Today we’re sending a strong, clear message to anyone seeking to defraud Medicare: You will get caught and you will pay the price. We will protect a sacred trust and an earned guarantee.”

In Miami, where 25 people were charged for their role in various fraudulent schemes totaling $44 million, federal officials allege that in one scheme three suspects bribed Medicare patients for their identification numbers, then used the information to bill the government $20 million for medically unnecessary home health care services.

“The lead defendant spent much of the money from the scheme and purchased multiple luxury vehicles including two Lamborhinis, a Ferrari and a Bentley,” according to a statement from Health and Human Services and the Justice Department.

In Detroit, 18 people, including two doctors, a physician's assistant and two therapists, were charged in various scams totaling some $49 million in false claims for medically unnecessary services, including home health, psychotherapy and infusion therapy.

In one Detroit case, three people allegedly posed as licensed physicians and wrote bogus prescriptions for drugs and psychotherapy services totaling $12 million, according to the HHS-DOJ statement. 

Tuesday’s announcement on the Medicare-fraud sweep was overshadowed by reporters inquiring about two other scandals involving Holder’s Justice Department: That the attorney general’s office seized Associated Press phone records in a probe of a national security leak and a DOJ probe into reports that the IRS gave extra scrutiny to some conservative groups when auditing nonprofit organizations.

The burial of Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev in a Muslim cemetery in Virginia appears to be legal, according to the county sheriff who investigated the secretive undertaking.

Tsarnaev, 26, was buried at the Al-Barzakh Cemetery in Doswell, Va., last week after relatives and a funeral director in Worcester, Mass., unsuccessfully sought a burial place for more than a week.

Tsarnaev’s remains were washed and ready to be buried, but cemeteries in several cities refused to take the body, fearing protests and desecration. And as a Muslim, the 26-year-old’s body could not be cremated. Attempts to send the body back to his native Russia also failed.

Disgusted by all the furor, a Christian woman, Marsha Mullen of Richmond, Va., stepped in as a gesture of kindness. She emailed religious leaders and others to find a final resting place for Tsarnaev.

Al-Barzakh offered a plot.

Tsarnaev’s uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, took possession of the body and moved it to Virginia. On Thursday of last week, it was revealed the suspect in the bombings that killed three and wounded more than 200 others had been buried.

“I buried him with my own hands,” Tsarni told NBCWashington.com on Friday. “It’s over.”

Hours after the burial, Caroline County officials asked the state to investigate whether it was done properly or if laws had been broken. Neighbors protested a police presence at the cemetery.

Late Saturday, Caroline County Sheriff Tony Lippa issued a statement, saying his office had reviewed the death certificate, burial permit, transportation permit for movement of the body from Massachusetts to Virginia as well as other documents. He consulted with David Storke, mayor of the county seat of Bowling Green, who also happens to be a funeral home owner.

“It would appear that all paperwork is in order at this point. I am still awaiting return phone calls from the Islamic Society of Greater Richmond, Islamic Funeral Services and Worcester Police Chief Gary J. Gemme,” Lippa’s statement said.

Lippa said some security was provided at the gravesite on Friday. There were no reported incidents. He vowed not to divert limited government resources to protect the gravesite, “especially one belonging to that terrorist.”

“Unfortunately we now find ourselves forever connected to this tragedy in the most unsavory way,” he said in his statement, “as the final resting place of one of the alleged terrorists."

His brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, is in a prison hospital in Massachusetts awaiting trial on federal terrorism charges.

This story was originally published on Sun May 12, 2013 10:22 PM EDT

A fund to help victims in the Boston Marathon bombings will be divided up first to families of those killed, then by the severity of injuries, but no one should expect to have 100 percent of their expenses covered, the administrator said Monday night.

“Whatever we do with this fund is inadequate,” Ken Feinberg, administrator of One Fund Boston said in town hall for victims and their families. “Everyone, please lower your expectations about this fund. If you had a billion dollars you would not have enough money to deal with the problems with these attacks.”

Feinberg is a Massachusetts native who also administered funds involving 9/11 victims as well as victims in the Aurora, Colo., movie theater massacre and Virginia Tech shootings.

He did promise payouts by June 30 to the families of three people killed in the blasts, the MIT campus police officer killed in the aftermath as well as people who suffered other severe injuries such as double amputations.

Families of the dead and those who lost more than one limb could potentially each receive “well over $1 million,” he said.

In addition to the people killed, some 260 others were wounded or injured in the twin bombings, and several required amputations.

“It’s unique to have so many catastrophic injuries that require compensation,” Feinberg said.

Feinberg talked through a draft protocol that when finalized will dictate who gets money in the fund and how much. He said mental trauma compensation would be “iffy,” and also said outpatients -- people went to the hospital but were then quickly released -- are unlikely to get much if any of the funds.

The protocol includes categories of physical injuries with death, double amputations, single amputations, paralysis, brain injuries at the top and less severe injuries below.

Feinberg and his staff will make the final determination on the protocol, set to be in place by May 15, when applications will be available for victims to apply for aid. Those seeking compensation will have until June 15 to submit an application.

Payouts to individuals are expected on June 30, when the fund's administration will be turned over local board of directors.

One way to decide on compensation is to find out how long each victim has been in the hospital, Feinberg said. But whether the existing insurance coverage of victims or other financial wealth should be taken into account — so called means-testing — is still unresolved.

In the other victims’ compensation funds, it was decided not to account for individual financial resources because it slows the process down, he said.

A least two members of the town hall audience agreed that means testing would be a drag on quickly getting victims money, a goal set by the fund.

Another town hall to receive input on the process will take place in the same location – the Boston Public Library at Copley Square – at 10 a.m. on Tuesday.

Feinberg said more than 50,000 private individuals and companies have contributed to One Fund Boston, many with $5 or $10 donations.

The fund has already raised more than $28 million, Feinberg said. Some $11 million dollars of that is already available, and the $17 million remaining is pledged but not yet donated, he said,

At Virginia Tech, Feinberg said, students who witnessed the carnage in the classroom shooting were compensated for mental trauma. That hasn’t been decided in Boston yet, but he called it “iffy.”

Tragedies such as the Boston bombings bring an outpouring of generosity, he said, and bring the country together. He noted that the entire One Fund Boston fund was from private donations, unlike the $7.1 billion 9/11 compensation fund, which was legislated by Congress.

“I’m always amazed at the charitable impulse of people,” Feinberg said. “We have 50,000 private donors. It reaffirms your faith in the American people.”

Still, some in the audience appeared disappointed that outpatients were unlikely to be compensated, including victim who have no insurance and must pay their entire emergency room bills.

Killed in the blasts were Boston University grad student Lingzi Lu, 23, from the city of Shnyang in northeastern China; Krystle Campbell, 29, a steakhouse manager from Arlington, Mass. and Martin Richard, 8, of Dorchester, who was waiting for his dad, Bill Richard, at the finish line along with his mother and sister, who were seriously wounded.

Sean Collier, a 26-year-old MIT campus officer, was fatally shot by the bombing suspects Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar  Tsarnaev as they fled a massive manhunt in the wake of their public identification, police said.

Related:

• Funeral director in Boston bombing case used to serving the unwanted
• Tsarnaev pal can be released with limits, lawyers say

The family of the Boston Marathon bombing suspect killed in a shootout with police can’t find a place to bury him, even as his body is being prepared for just that purpose.

An uncle of suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev arrived in Worcester, Mass., on Sunday to “prepare the body” of his nephew for burial.

Ruslan Tsarni, of Mongomery Village, Md., came to the city about 40 miles west of Boston with three other men, who were not family members,  and met with the director of the Graham Putnam & Mahoney Funeral Parlors.

The men who joined Tsarni were planning "religious washings" in accordance with Muslim burial rites on 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s body, the funeral director Peter Stefan said.

Stefan said he and the family have been unable to find a cemetery in Massachusetts willing to take the body. Still, though he’s had "no offers" of a cemetery, he expects the suspect will be buried in the state.

"We have to bury this guy,” Stefan told reporters in an impromptu news conference Sunday. "Whatever it is, whoever he is, in this country, we bury people. I don't care who it is. That's what I do.”

A small number of demonstrators had protested at the funeral home over the weekend, holding signs and chanting "USA!" One sign read: "Do not bury him on U.S. soil."

According to The Associated Press, several people drove by the funeral home Sunday and yelled, including one man who shouted, "Throw him off a boat like Osama bin Laden!"

Apparently in response to those protests, Stefan remarked, "I can't separate sins from sinners. I can't pick and choose. This is what we do."

For his part, the uncle said that Cambridge, Mass., was Tsarnaev’s home, not the southern Russian republics of his roots.

“He lived in America, he grew up here,” Tsarni said. “Any contemplations that his body should be taken to his home country, they cannot believe. His home country was indeed Cambridge, Massachusetts.”

Stefan said he is planning to ask the city of Cambridge to provide a burial plot, and if Cambridge turns him down, he will seek help from state officials.

Shortly after Tamerlan and his 19-year-old brother Dzhokhar were identified as suspects in the bombings that killed three and injured more than 200, Tsarni said the brothers may have been motivated by shame and hatred.

“Being losers, hatred to those who were able to settle themselves,” Tsarni said at the time.

Dzhokhar, 19, remains in a prison hospital while he awaits legal proceedings on federal terrorism charges. He could face the death penalty.

NBC News' Alexandra Moe and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related:

• DNA on Boston bomb does not match suspect's wife, investigators say
• Boston suspects had plotted July 4 attack, investigators say
• What motivated bombing suspects? 'Being losers,' uncle says

A federal judge said Thursday that a man accused of sending poison-laced letters to President Barack Obama and other officials should remain in jail without bond, and ruled that a grand jury will decide on formal charges, local media reported.

“It appears to the court that there is probable cause to hold the defendant,” U.S. Magistrate S. Allan Alexander said Thursday in a preliminary hearing, the Daily Journal of Northeast Mississippi reported. 

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Everett Dutschke speaks to the media as federal officials search his property in Tupelo, Mississippi, April 23, 2013.

James Everett Dutschke, 41, of Tupelo on Thursday also waived his right to a bond hearing, according to NBC affiliate WMC TV. Monday, the judge also decline to set bond after authorities argued the suspect was a flight risk.

Though prosecutors initially charged the former martial arts instructor with an attempted use of a biological weapon — ricin —  Alexander referred the case to an upcoming grand jury to determine formal charges.

The only witness to testify in the Oxford courtroom Thursday was FBI Special Agent Stephen E. Thomason, who wrote an affidavit to the court supporting Dutschke’s arrest.

Thomason testified that lab analysis shows the granular substances found in the letters is ricin, the Daily Journal reported. He also said initial testing show the letters are linked to a computer printer owned by Dutschke, though with some uncertainty

Thomason also revealed that the FBI would execute a search warrant at another location where Dutsckhke was believed to keep some of his belongings.

According to the affidavit, the FBI found traces of the nerve agent ricin in a martial arts studio once used by Dutschke and on a dust mask. FBI agents watched as Dutschke threw the items in a trash bin, the affidavit said.

The affidavit, unsealed on Tuesday, also alleged that Dutschke ordered castor beans — used to make ricin — on eBay last November and December.

The FBI is still conducting tests in order to identifying trace evidence, residues, and signatures of production that could provide evidence to support the investigation.

The ricin case originally focused on Elvis impersonator, Paul Kevin Curtis, a man whom Dutschke had feuded with for years. Curtis was arrested two weeks ago and briefly detained but but charges were later dropped. Curtis has said Dutschke framed him.

An FBI surveillance team was watching Dutschke on April 22 when he entered his former dojo, Tupelo Taekwondo Plus, and removed a bunch of things and tossed them into a garbage bin on the street, the affidavit said.

Ricin can be lethal, but an FBI agent testified in court that the variety found in the letters sent to Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Judge Sadie Holland of Lee County, Miss. wasn’t very potent.

Dutschke has maintained he is innocent of the charges. His attorney, George Lucas, has said no evidence has shown the letters were dangerous, or used a weapon as initial charges state.

NBC News' Pete Williams and Tracy Connor contributed to this report.

Related:

• Feds: Ricin traces found in martial arts studio linked to suspect
• No bond for martial arts instructor charged with sending ricin letters

This story was originally published on Thu May 2, 2013 4:07 PM EDT

A diocese in Ohio is under siege — receiving numerous threatening calls as well as heated online criticism — and a veteran teacher is out of a job because of publicly revealing a lesbian relationship in violation of the Catholic school’s morality code.

But the firing has raised a fervent debate over tolerance both online and in the Columbus, Ohio, community where the incident took place.

Physical education teacher Carla Hale, 57, was fired in March after her name appeared in her mother's obituary, which also noted Hale's longtime lesbian partner.

Hale was summoned to a meeting with school administrators after she returned from her mother’s funeral.

At the meeting, she received a copy of her mother’s obituary that she and her brother had written. In addition, administrators gave Hale an anonymous letter from a parent calling the presence of a lesbian teacher at the school disgrace.

Hale was subsequently dismissed from Bishop Watterson Catholic High School after 19 years of service, with the school citing a morality provision in the contract between teachers and the diocese.

In the days since, the dismissal has received widespread attention on social media. A petition calling for her reinstatement on the Change.org website had received more than 55,000 signatures as of Wednesday evening.

The school district even asked for a police investigation after it received threatening calls, the Columbus Post Dispatch reported. The school’s Facebook page was removed as were employee email addresses from the school’s website.

Hale also filed a grievance to seek reinstatement but that was denied this week, she said. In a news briefing on Wednesday she said she would file an appeal with the central Ohio board of Catholic educators, NBC station WCMH reported. She also said she would file a discrimination complaint with the Columbus community relations department.

“I've committed my 19-year professional career to one thing,” she said. “ensuring that our next generation achieves its full potential. I love my job, I don't want money, I don't want fame, I simply want to return to Bishop Watterson.”

In a statement released last week, the diocese said personnel matters are confidential, but said school employees when hired agree to a church moral code. 

 “Personnel who choose to publicly espouse relationships or principles that are contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church cannot, ultimately, remain in the employ of the Church,” the statement said.