A state prison inmate who recently lived in Canaan and threatened Gov. Paul Lepage last year is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in federal court in Bangor on charges that he threatened President Barack Obama.

Leroy Eugene Dunn, 30, is accused of writing a letter in April saying he would kill the president, according to a federal grand jury indictment filed Jan. 12 in U.S. District Court.

The indictment alleges Dunn said in a handwritten letter, “I hate you and will do anything I can to get rid of you … You will die at my hands … I will kill you Barack Obama.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney James Moore said the letter containing the threat was addressed to the president and placed in the outgoing mail by Dunn while he was an inmate at the Piscataquis County jail in Dover-Foxcroft.

Maj. David Allen, administrator at the Somerset County Jail in East Madison, said Dunn was brought to the Somerset jail Wednesday on a federal warrant by U.S. marshals. Allen said Dunn’s last known address was on Hinckley Road in Canaan.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service.

Dunn has been a prisoner at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham, where he is serving a three-year sentence for drug trafficking.

Dunn also pleaded guilty to a terrorizing charge in Feb. 2011 for threatening Gov. Paul LePage while Dunn was an inmate at the Piscataquis County jail in Dover-Foxcroft. In that case, Dunn detailed a plan to kill the governor and slipped the message under his cell door, according to The Portland Press Herald.

Dunn was sentenced to 60 days in jail on the terrorizing charge, which was ordered served concurrently with the drug trafficking conviction, a spokesperson at the Piscataquis County district attorney’s office said Thursday.

Dunn’s mother, Philomena Gordon, of Bingham, said Thursday her son is mentally disabled and also suffers from the effects of Marfans syndrome, a disorder of the body’s connective tissues that can result in disproportionately long arms and legs, among other symptoms.

Gordon said her son stands 7 feet, 6 inches tall and weighs more than 300 pounds. She said Dunn should be under supervised medical and psychiatric care, not behind bars.

“I would say to the prosecutor on behalf of my son that I do not believe that prison is the place for my son to be,” Gordon, 53, said in a telephone interview. “My son suffers from severe mental illness and I believe that if my son has to go anywhere it should be a psychiatric institution where he can get the help that he needs.”

She said she believes her son was not taking his prescribed medications at the county jail when he is alleged to have written the threatening letters. Gordon said her son was on seroquel, a drug to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and other medications for mental illness.

“I know he was off his medications; Leroy called me several times,” she said. “I called that jail up and I begged them to put him back on his medications. I’m not defending my son believe me; if my son did it, he needs to pay for the mistake that he made, but I do believe it’s part of his retardation.”

Stephen Smith, Dunn’s lawyer, told the Press Herald he believes alleged threat against the president came as a result of “some unfortunate medication changes” and should not be prosecuted.

Smith was unavailable for comment Thursday according to a man answering the phone at Smith’s law offices in Bangor.

A spokeswoman at the state prison in Windham said Dunn’s release date on the drug charges is Oct. 10, 2013. Dunn is to be held without bail in federal custody until the threatening case is settled, according to the indictment.

The charge of threats against the president carries a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000.

Doug Harlow — 612-2367

dharlow@centralmaine.com