DOVER, Del. – A former car salesman who was once declared delusional by government psychologists and was imprisoned for more than a year after aggravating the FBI with claims he was negotiating with Islamic State militants to free Western hostages is seeking $100 million in damages.
Toby Juan Lopez of Wyoming, Delaware, was charged with threatening an FBI agent in a 2015 email after being told to stop trying to contact families of hostages and people he believed to be Islamic State militants, including ethnic Chechen military commander Omar al-Shishani.
Prosecutors eventually said he was competent to stand trial, but dropped criminal charges against him in April.
The charges were dropped on the eve of a hearing at which an FBI agent would have faced questions under oath about his communications with Lopez.
