In this undated booking photo (right) provided by Hampden Police, Ray Geisel is seen. Geisel, a man who authorities said was keeping weapons and military-style gear in his hotel room and car, appeared in court Thursday, Aug. 7, 2008, on charges he threatened to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
Two people closest to a man charged with threatening to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Friday he has no violent tendencies and would never have seriously threatened violence against anyone.
In fact, they say, Raymond Hunter Geisel came to Florida from Maine earlier this year in hopes that taking a bail bondsman training course would put him on a pathway to a law enforcement career or some other vocation in which he could help people.
“He’d never hurt a person. It would be completely against his character,” said Geisel’s girlfriend, 35-year-old Susanne Kynast, in a telephone interview from the sailboat home they share in the Florida Keys. “He is so much for life. It’s absolutely horrifying.”
A mentor and Catholic Charities caseworker who took Geisel into his home in Hampden, Maine, four years ago made similar comments, noting that Geisel was just emerging from an severely abusive home environment to make his way in the world.
“He’s basically a 22-year-old who’s a teenager. He says things that are inappropriate,” Richard Peer, 58, said in a separate telephone interview. “In my heart, I know he didn’t mean it. He would be more likely to save a life than do to the other.”