By: (AP) A man was arrested and charged with threatening a
Los Angeles Times reporter working on a story about an alleged Mafia extortion plot against actor Steven Seagal.
Prosecutors say Alexander Proctor smashed the windshield of
Times reporter Anita Busch in June and left a dead fish with a long-stemmed rose in its mouth on the car's hood.
A piece of cardboard with the word "STOP" was placed on the car, parked near her home, according to a federal grand jury indictment.
Proctor, 58, of Los Angeles was arrested Wednesday outside his home and was charged with interference with commerce by threats of violence, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
The
Times published several stories earlier this summer about the arrest of Seagal's former business partner, Julius Nasso, for his alleged role in a multimillion-dollar extortion scheme against the actor. Federal prosecutors in New York said they had a tape of Nasso and a Gambino crime family member plotting the shakedown.
Nasso, arrested in June on extortion charges, has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors described Proctor as an ex-convict with burglary and narcotics-related convictions. He was being held without bail.
FBI spokeswoman Laura Bosley did not rule out the possibility of more arrests.
Authorities did not immediately link Proctor to a similar case in which in a reporter who wrote a story for
Vanity Fair on the alleged Seagal extortion told police a man pointed a gun at him and said "Stop." No arrests have been made in that case.
Times spokesman David Garcia said the newspaper was pleased with Wednesday's arrest. "The safety of our reporter has always been our greatest concern," Garcia said.
Busch is the former editor of
The Hollywood Reporter.
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