Dan Wessels of Flippin, who is charged with making threats directed at a Circuit Court Judge and a relative who currently has custody of his daughter, appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday and entered a not guilty plea to the charges filed against him.
Court records in Marion County show that Wessels has had orders of protection filed against him and has filed them against others for at least the past three years.
According to the probable cause affidavit filed in his Baxter County case, the 56-year-old Wessels came to the office of a Mountain Home attorney on September 27th and announced that he intended to “handle” his legal situation himself. When asked what he meant by the statement, Wessels is alleged to have said that he intended to kill “everyone” associated with his case. He made specific reference to Circuit Judge Shawn Womack who authorized the issuance of an Order of Protection against Wessels, and his mother-in-law who currently has custody of his daughter.
The attorney said Wessels seemed “distraught and hopeless because of medical, legal and financial problems and not being able to see his daughter for the past three months”.
According to court records, Wessels blamed Judge Womack for authorizing the issuance of the Order of Protection that had prevented him from seeing his daughter.
As mandated by law, the attorney — as an officer of the court — reported the threat to the Arkansas State Police and a special agent with that agency investigated the case and wrote the probable cause affidavit that resulted in Wessels’ arrest.
Wessels, who is charged with first degree terroristic threatening, was arrested by the State Police on September 29th and is currently an inmate in the Baxter County jail with bond set at $50,000.
During his arraignment, Wessels told Judge John Putman that his life “has been on the skids” for a number of years.
Wessels is set to reappear in Circuit Court on October 20th.
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