Man Trying To Reach Chelsea Faces Gun Count

A New Jersey man accused of trying to make unwanted contact with Chelsea Clinton is to appear in a Washington court Monday to face charges he had an unlicensed firearm and ammunition stored a block from the White House, the Secret Service said Saturday.

Agents working with Elizabeth, N.J., police arrested Vladimir Zelenkov, 26, Wednesday at his home in Elizabeth on a weapons warrant issued by the District of Columbia Superior Court, a spokesman said.

The warrant alleged that Zelenkov had an unauthorized semiautomatic weapon stored in a safety deposit box at a bank on the corner at 1700 Pennsylvania Ave. The White House address is 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

After agents interrogated Zelenkov, Newark-based U.S. magistrate Dennis M. Cavanaugh ordered him released without bail but told him to stop trying to contact Chelsea, the daughter of President and Hillary Clinton, and to appear in the Washington court Monday, his birthday.

Jan Gilhooly, Secret Service agent in charge in Newark, N.J., said Zelenkov “has been making attempts to contact” Chelsea.

In a telephone interview from Newark, Gilhooly would not discuss the specific nature of the contacts.

The Record, a newspaper in Hackensack, N.J., described Zelenkov’s efforts as attempts to write “disturbing letters” to Chelsea.

Zelenkov held a New Jersey permit to buy a gun but not to carry one, Gilhooly said. Such weapons are banned in the nation’s capital.

The Hackensack newspaper reported Saturday that an affidavit on file in D.C. Superior Court says federal agents interviewed Zelenkov after an arrest last year in northern Virginia.