(Stock photo by Greenleaf123/Getty Images)
FARGO — Just days before his arrest, a North Dakota man accused of threatening a federal official tried to retrieve a gun that had been confiscated from him, a prosecutor said during a Wednesday court hearing.
Charles Dalzell, 46, of St. Thomas, made his initial appearance by video from the Grand Forks County jail before Magistrate Judge Alice Senechal at the federal courthouse in Fargo.
Dalzell and his attorney, public defender Rhiannon Gorham, requested an immediate hearing to determine if he could be released while awaiting trial on charges of making interstate threats to injure another person and threatening to assault, kidnap or murder a United States official.
Charles Dalzell (Provided by Grand Forks County)
In making the case that Dalzell should stay in jail, Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Lee said Dalzell had recently gone to the Pembina County Sheriff’s Office to retrieve a gun that had been confiscated from him in connection with another case.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he’s going to the sheriff’s office to retrieve a firearm,” Lee said.
Dalzell is accused of sending a threatening email Sunday to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in North Dakota that references the shooting death of a Minnesota state representative.
“I don’t want this situation to end up like Minnesota over the weekend,” Dalzell wrote, according to the criminal complaint in the case.
Lee said investigators found methamphetamine and a machete at Dalzell’s property after Dalzell was arrested Monday.
Senechal cited the seriousness of the charges, the information from Lee and Dalzell’s criminal history in ordering that Dalzell remain in custody.
Dalzell responded by begging the judge to allow him to visit his mother, who he says is dying of cancer.
“Let me say goodbye to my mother,” an emotional Dalzell asked the judge. “I want to tell her I love her.”
Senechal declined to change her order.
The complaint says Dalzell initially contacted the U.S. Attorney’s Office in February 2024 raising concerns about an attorney he hired to assist him with a property issue. Dalzell indicated in the 2024 email he was considering violence against the individual, according to court filings.
FBI agents in February warned him that his emails were “borderline threatening” and that it is against the law to threaten people over the internet, the complaint says.
In Sunday’s email — addressed to a U.S. Attorney’s Office employee whom court records identify as “J.P.” — Dalzell claims he was being ignored by federal and state officials, law enforcement and a judge.
Dalzell on Wednesday said Gov. Kelly Armstrong was “breaching his oath of office.”
Dalzell maintained that he is not a threat to anyone.
He said the gun was taken from him in relation to a disorderly conduct case. He said he only swore at a group of juveniles and the gun was not involved, but was taken away.
Dalzell’s criminal history also includes other convictions for disorderly conduct, as well as criminal mischief and domestic violence, court records show.
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