Tuesday, 9 January 2007

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Oprah Winfrey's alleged blackmailer waives preliminary hearing

Case could come to court sooner than expected

The Atlanta man accused of targeting Oprah Winfrey in an alleged $1.5 million extortion plot could be headed for the grand jury sooner than expected.

On Monday, Keifer Bonvillain, 36, waived his right to appear before a federal magistrate at a preliminary hearing, Randall Samborn a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, tells the Associated Press.

Instead, a grand jury will likely be asked to determine whether there is enough evidence to warrant a trial for Bonvillain, who was arrested in Atlanta on Dec. 15 and then released on $20,000 bail.

While the criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court against Bonvillain states that he approached "a public figure and the owner of a Chicago-based company" and threatened to release potentially damaging recorded phone conversations about the person, the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, citing unidentified sources, name Winfrey as his intended victim.

Samborn declined to confirm if Winfrey was the victim.

Bonvillain's attorney, Kent Carlson, also did not return a phone call from the AP, though in a weekend phone conversation with the Sun-Times, Bonvillain said of the case, "There is nothing to it. It's nothing. It was a big mix-up."

His attorney, Kent Carlson, told the paper he could not "confirm or deny" the specifics in the legal complaint against his client.

Winfrey has not commented publicly on the case.