Woman questioned after protest e-mail

April 17, 2001

Pensacola - Secret Service agents say they've questioned a Pensacola woman in the wake of her scathing e-mail to a legislator, Governor Jeb Bush and President George W. Bush.

Margaret Richards says she sent Winter Park legislator Allen Trovillion an e-mail last week. She says the e-mail said a firing squad would be lenient punishment for his making derogatory comments about gays. It also blamed him for helping "appoint a dictator to the White House."

Richards said she sent carbon copies of the message to the governor and President. Two agents then went to her house Saturday and asked her if she belonged to a terrorist group, owned any weapons or had ever been committed to a mental institution.

Richards also says the agents searched her house, photographed her and convinced her to sign a waiver that lets them check her medical records. A woman who supervises the Secret Service field office in Mobile confirms the agents visited.