Arapahoe man jailed on alleged abduction scheme

LINCOLN, Neb. — An Arapahoe man appeared in federal court in Lincoln today, charged with knowing of a scheme to kidnap Furnas County Sheriff Kurt Kapperman and a Tennessee judge, not alerting law enforcement officials and providing assistance to those planning the abduction.

FBI agents arrested Anthony Todd Weverka, 54 years old, of Arapahoe on Monday. His first appearance before Magistrate Judge Cheryl Zwart was at 2 p.m., today, in the federal courthouse in Lincoln.

The investigation of incidents leading up to Weverka’s arrest involved Sheriff Kapperman’s department, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Nebraska State Patrol, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the FBI.

According to an indictment unsealed by Acting U.S. Attorney Robert C. Stuart, District of Nebraska, Weverka faces a charge of “misprision of felony,” (the deliberate concealment of one’s knowledge of a felony or a treasonable act), alleging that Weverka knew of the existence of felony offenses, specifically the solicitation to commit a crime of violence and attempted kidnapping, and not only did not disclose them to authorities, but concealed them through his actions.

Misprision of felony carries a possible penalty of up to three years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, or both.

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In a separate indictment, Michael Wayne Parsons, 55, of Arlington, Tenn., is charged by Stuart with being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Facing a charge of failure to appear for trial on the possession charge in Tipton County, Tenn., Parsons was located and arrested on Jan. 11, 2017, at the airport in Arapahoe. He was in possession of a Rock River 5.56 LAR-15 assault rifle and 637 rounds of ammunition.

The charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, or both. Parsons is in custody in Tennessee.

In January, law enforcement officials tracked Parsons and his cell phone to the airport north of Arapahoe and arrested him after finding him in a locked airport office.

Sheriff Kapperman said at the time that Parsons was wanted on a charge of failure to appear and possession of a weapon by a felon. Parsons’ record includes theft, burglary, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated assault.

Sheriff Kapperman said that he and his officers had been alerted by FBI agents in Omaha that Parsons may be in the Arapahoe area. The Nebraska State Patrol’s Air Wing joined the search of an Arapahoe farm and the Arapahoe area looking for possible vehicles connected to Parsons. Kapperman said that they found Parsons at the airport when Parsons’ cell phone triangulated on the airport area five miles north of Arapahoe. Parsons was taken into custody without incident, jailed in the Furnas County jail in Beaver City and held for extradition to Tennessee. Parsons was later returned to Tennessee to face the possession and failure to appear charges.

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Weverka’s involvement appears to have started when, as president of the Arapahoe Airport Board, he met an individual, referred to in the indictment as “M.P.,” who flew a plane into the airport and asked to spend the night on the premises. The indictment alleges that M.P. said he was an ambassador and associate chief justice of the Chilcotin Nation in British Columbia, Canada.

Following M.P.’s arrest and pending his extradition to Tennessee, the indictment alleges, another individual — “S.H.,” — issued orders demanding the release of M.P. from jail.

SH indicated she was “The Chief Justice of the Universal Supreme Court of the Tshilhqot’in Nation (USCTN),” a self-proclaimed body purporting to represent the “country” of Chilcotin.

When law enforcement ignored S.H.’s “court orders,” the indictment alleges, she contacted a bounty hunter in New Orleans and offered to pay to have the bounty hunter break M.P. out of jail, arrest the Sheriff of Furnas County and the presiding judge in Tipton County, Tenn., and transport all of them to Canada, where the sheriff and the judge would face purported criminal charges.

The indictment alleges that Weverka had learned of the plot to take the sheriff into custody and did not immediately disclose it to law enforcement officials. It further alleges that Weverka spoke repeatedly with the woman in Canada and that further, he supplied the home address of the sheriff to her.

After learning of the plot, it is alleged that Weverka warned Sheriff Kapperman that his life might be in danger, but that Weverka did not disclose his full knowledge of the planned abduction.

The indictment alleged that Weverka committed the crime of misprision of felony by concealing the crime through false statements, omissions of material facts and continuing to provide assistance to those whom he believed were involved in the plot.

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Stuart’s office indicates that indictments are charging documents that contain one or more individual counts that are accusations, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.