Arizona publisher uses his newspaper to accuse wife of poisoning him

A newspaper publisher in Arizona is using one of his papers to air dirty laundry between him and his wife, who he accuses of trying to poison him.

Joseph Soldwedel publishes several small newspapers, including the 13,000-circulation Prescott Daily Courier. In it, he accused his wife, Felice Soldwedel, of trying to poison him, detailing the allegations from his lawsuit against her, according to The Associated Press.

Joseph Soldwedel ran three stories on the subject in his paper, none of which named his wife, but an ad in the Courier did name Felice Soldwedel and featured a picture of her with images of skulls and rats.

{mosads}Felice Soldwedel says her husband’s claims are ludicrous and he is publicly smearing her because she wants a divorce.

“I’ve had people call me, text me, ‘Felice, is that you in the paper? Oh my god,’ ” she told the AP. “It almost makes you feel like you want to leave town. He made me look like this horrible person.”

Joseph Soldwedel is seeking $18 million from Felice Soldwedel in his lawsuit. 

“I’m hoping to get her into court and to get it into trial and bring up enough evidence to the surface that police could not ignore it,” he said.

A prosector reportedly said there was no evidence a crime had been committed and declined to file charges.

In the ad Joseph Soldwedel ran in his paper, he accused his wife of having an accomplice and offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who may have information on the matter.

Felice Soldwedel said she first heard of the poisoning allegations when the newspaper showed up on her driveway — even though she was not a subscriber. She added that no one from the newspaper had reached out to her for her side of the story.

The poisoning allegation stems from an incident in 2016 in which Joseph Soldwedel said he experienced shortness of breath, fever and headaches, though he attributed it to the flu at the time.

He later became suspicious that he had been poisoned and sent hair and nail samples to a lab. He claims his wife poisoned his food with thallium, a heavy metal once used in rat poison. A toxicologist Joseph Soldwedel hired to analyze the results found there was a “strong possibility” he was intentionally poisoned.

Prescott police investigated the incident at Joseph Soldwedel’s attorney’s request, though they reportedly found nothing to indicate his wife had poisoned him. 

Joseph Soldwedel is an award-winning newspaper publisher and owns or partially owns 13 papers.