A former lab supervisor at Northeastern University has been convicted of staging a hoax explosion at the Boston campus after which mendacity about what occurred to a federal agent.
Jason Duhaime, 46, from San Antonio, Texas, was convicted on three counts Friday by a federal jury. He faces as much as 5 years in jail and a fantastic of as much as $250,000 for every offense.
Two attorneys representing Duhamie withdrew from the case in January, courtroom paperwork present. A public defender who changed them couldn’t instantly be reached for remark Saturday.
Northeastern University
Duhaime labored because the college’s new expertise supervisor and director of the Immersive Media Lab. In September 2022, he referred to as the college police to say he’d collected a number of packages from a mail space, together with two Pelican laborious plastic instances, and that when he opened one of the instances, it exploded and sharp objects flew out and injured his arms.
Duhaime’s 911 name sparked a significant response from legislation enforcement, who evacuated the realm and referred to as within the bomb squad.
The incident additionally triggered a panic on campus, CBS Boston reported at the time.
“Throughout the course of our investigation, we believe he repeatedly lied to us about what happened inside the lab, faked his injuries and wrote a rambling letter directed at the lab — threatening more violence,” FBI Boston Special Agent in Charge Joseph Bonavolonta stated at a 2022 information convention.
He confirmed police the letter he stated he discovered contained in the case, which claimed the lab was attempting to get individuals to dwell inside a digital actuality world and was secretly working with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and the U.S. authorities.
“In the case you got today we could have planted explosives but not this time!!!” the notice learn, courtroom paperwork present. “Take notice!!! You have 2 months to take operations down or else!!!!!”
But Duhaime’s story shortly unraveled, in line with the FBI. They did not discover something within the instances and famous the letter gave the impression to be in pristine situation. The FBI stated Duhaime had superficial accidents to his arms, however no injury to his shirt sleeves. And when brokers searched Duhaime’s pc, they discovered a replica of the letter in a backup folder that he’d written a couple of hours earlier than calling 911.
“Bomb hoaxes like the one the defendant fabricated here have real life consequences. Communities are put in fear, law enforcement personnel are diverted from other important duties and there are significant financial repercussions,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy stated in a press release. “As we experience a wave of bomb hoaxes in schools, houses of worship and other gathering places, we will work closely with our local, state and federal partners to hold accountable anyone who tries to inject fear and distress into our community.”
Northeastern, a non-public college, has greater than 18,000 undergraduate college students and 22,000 graduate college students.
Duhaime is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 2.