Arraignment Scheduled for Man Found Possessing Guns, Explosives, Mercury

Arraignment is scheduled for the 3-o´clock hour today for a suspect who made it an unusual Friday for the Tuolumne County Sheriff´s Department, by possessing a mixture of guns, explosives, and hazardous materials.

44-year-old Michael Klaus Specht was arrested in Tuolumne after he was found to be in possession of two handguns, 30 small explosives similar to dynamite, and a substantial quantity of liquid mercury.

Specht reportedly told deputies that he´d been experimenting with loading bullet tips with mercury.

Sheriff´s Department officials took the explosives and an officer from Tuolumne County Environmental Health took the mercury. Both materials were to be disposed of, say officials.

Originally, deputies had been stopped for having an unreadable license plate. But, since Specht had been found guilty of a weapons charge in 1997 and is a convicted felon, officers were able to search his car. The guns and explosives were found in the trunk.