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'Things really have changed' Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Irla Mae Meanor, 78, and her attorney, Richard Thierolf, leave U.S. District Court in Medford on Friday after she had been charged with allegedly mailing a "threatening communication" to the administrator of a nursing home. A 78-year-old Grants Pass woman allegedly mails a suspicious powder to the home that asked her to move By SARAH LEMON A Grants Pass woman was arrested and charged Friday in federal court for allegedly mailing a letter with white powder in it. The FBI was investigating a similar case in that town. Irla Mae Meanor, 78, a former resident of Fair View Transitional Health Center in Grants Pass, was arrested and charged with mailing a "threatening communication" addressed to the nursing home's administrator, Paul Crook. There was no indication, however, that the substance Meanor allegedly sent was anthrax, said U.S. District Attorney Robert Thomson. The substance was still being analyzed at a Portland lab Friday, he said. Meanor appeared in U.S. District Court in Medford three days after U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said the Department of Justice will aggressively prosecute anyone who makes false anthrax threats or any other form of terrorist threat. "A month ago, nobody would have given this sort of thing a second thought, but now, because of the attacks on America, things really have changed," said defense attorney Richard Thierolf Jr. The two incidents appear isolated and authorities in the Rogue Valley report no other similar cases in the area. In federal court Friday, Meanor apparently didn't hear the charges filed against her when Thomson first read them. Leaning on her walker, she chuckled when Thomson read the charges for the second time. After federal Judge John Cooney repeatedly told Meanor to pay attention when he was speaking, he asked if she had any money to hire an attorney. "Fair View took it all," she replied. Meanor was forced to leave the nursing home after she was caught stealing other residents' food and feeding diseased feral cats, according to a statement made by Crook in a court affidavit. Crook told FBI and postal service investigators that Meanor had written several angry letters to him at the nursing home and, before she left, prayed he would die. He refused to comment on the case Friday. Thierolf asked Cooney to dismiss the charges because the white powder, which was not accompanied by a note, could not be considered a threat. Cooney disagreed and refused to dismiss the charges. "This is clearly a nonverbal communication of a threat," Thomson said. A U.S. Postal Service worker noticed a "white granular substance" falling out of a letter picked up from a mailbox in front of Meanor's residence on the 1800 block of Rogue River Highway Tuesday, said postal inspector Natalie Bechelder in a court affidavit. Meanor allegedly told Bechelder and Grants Pass Postmaster John Fusco on Wednesday that she was aware of the nationwide anthrax scare, but that the only thing she had was potassium pills and that maybe some of her medication had fallen into the envelope. Meanor, who has had heart surgery, takes pills that contain a powder similar to the one found in the letter, investigators said. Meanor will have her preliminary court hearing on Nov. 2. The FBI also was investigating a report that an employee of Diversified Collection Service in Grants Pass received a letter containing white powder Thursday at 8:40 p.m. Some of the powder fell onto the employee's desk when the envelope was opened, said detectives from Grants Pass Department of Public Safety. FBI investigators later seized the envelope and powder, which being tested Friday. Reach reporter Sarah Lemon at 776-4487, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.