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New Bedford woman charged with threat to kill Michelle Obama

E-mail|Link December 22, 2009 06:43 PM

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

A New Bedford woman is in federal custody in Hawaii after calling the Boston office of the Secret Service and threatening to kill Michelle Obama as the president and his family prepared for a visit to Hawaii, according to the Secret Service.

Kristy Lee Roshia , 35, was arrested by the Secret Service Saturday and charged with threatening to kill a member of President Obama's family, said an affidavit filed by an agent Monday in Hawaii. She was also charged with assaulting one of the Secret Service agents at the agency's field office in Honolulu.

Roshia appeared in US District Court in Honolulu on Monday and is scheduled to return Wednesday for a hearing to determine whether she should be kept locked up until trial, said Elliot Enoki, a spokesman for the US attorney's office in Hawaii.

Beginning in 2004, Roshia deluged the Boston office of the Secret Service with calls, telling agents that she was an assassin whose mission was to kill the president, said the affidavit by the agent, John Woodruff. At the same time, she also said she had "no desire to hurt him," said the affidavit. George W. Bush was president at the time.

For several years, she made angry, rambling calls to the Boston office, sometimes as many as 10 a day, said Woodruff. On Nov. 10 of this year, she allegedly called and told the receptionist, "I will kill Marines," and "I will kill Michelle Obama."

The Secret Service determined through an envelope Roshia had allegedly previously mailed the office that she was in Hawaii. Agents arrested her Saturday. While in federal custody at the Honolulu field office, Roshia lunged at an agent and struck him in the arms and face, although he was not injured, said Darrin Blackford , a special agent and spokesman for the Secret Service headquarters in Washington.

Roshia has lived in several parts of Massachusetts in recent years, including Lowell, Chelmsford, and, most recently, New Bedford.