Arnebeck wrote, "We have been confidentially informed by a source we believe to be credible that Karl Rove has threatened Michael Connell, a principal witness we have identified in our King Lincoln case in federal court in Columbus, Ohio, that if he does not agree to 'take the fall' for election fraud in Ohio, his wife Heather will be prosecuted for supposed lobby law violations.
[5] He was served with a subpoena in Ohio on September 22, 2008,[citation needed] in a case alleging that vote-tampering during the 2004 presidential election resulted in civil rights violations.
[citation needed] At about 6 p.m. on December 19, 2008, Connell was killed, at the age of 45,[1] in the crash of a single-engine 1997 Piper Saratoga private airplane, which he was flying, which occurred in Lake Township, between 2.5 and 3 miles short of the runway at the Akron-Canton Airport near Akron, Ohio.
On December 31, 2008, it was reported that air traffic controllers had noted that Connell was off course, that they had been in communication with him regarding this, and that he had been trying to get back on course at the time of the crash.
[7] The National Transportation Safety Board published its final report into the accident that killed Connell on January 28, 2010.