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"It's bizarre,
its just hard to believe," said Charles Murphy, Jackson County
Sheriff's jail commander. He said the case began in June when
"the post office gets these packages that smell like skunks,
blood coming from them," and called police.
It was not immediately clear if Tarrants had retained an
attorney.
Murphy said an investigation by police in Brownstown, where the
victim lives, as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and
U.S. Postal Service, ultimately lead to Tarrants, director of a
small museum in nearby West Baden.
Authorities believe Tarrants began a campaign of trying to get
the victim fired or force him to resign because he was
disgruntled about losing out on the job.
"It's my understanding that Mr. Tarrants decided to create some
false information about the gentleman who did get the job,
accused him of child molestation, mailed a couple of dead
skunks, mailed a raccoon," Murphy said.
Witnesses said Tarrants had trapped the animals outside his home
in West Baden.
Tarrants is also accused of calling the county department of
child protective services from a phone outside his office at the
museum to falsely accuse his rival of having sex with a
15-year-old boy.
Tarrants was booked into Jackson County Jail on suspicion of
criminal mischief, intimidation, staking, criminal trespass,
false reporting, animal cruelty and harassment.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; editing by Grant McCool)
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