The wife of a Parkville man jailed for sending an angry ? and allegedly threatening ? e-mail to Gov. Martin O?Malley said she is receiving support from many people who?d like to see her husband freed.
“I?ve gotten so many calls from people saying, ?We support you,? ” said Linda Abbott, whose husband, Walter Abbott, 44, is being held on a $2 million bail at the Baltimore County Detention Center. “He was just lashing out with words.”
Linda Abbott said her husband, whom she described as a construction worker who has been losing work to illegal immigrants, was upset with the government.
On Tuesday, he sent a nasty e-mail to O?Malley?s Web site threatening to strangle the governor, according to charging documents.
An emotionally distraught Linda Abbott said Maryland State Police arrested her husband Tuesday within hours after he sent the e-mail.
“He shouldn?t be locked up,” she said Friday in telephone interview with The Examiner. “Even the police who arrested him said they didn?t want to do it. He?s not mentally insane. No, he shouldn?t have sent have sent the e-mail. He was just frustrated.”
Abbott said she is working on retaining an attorney who could help free her husband.
O?Malley?s office in Annapolis declined to comment on the arrest, referring all calls to the state police.
Abbott is charged with two counts of threatening to injure a state official. That charge carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $2,500 fine.
