A former lab supervisor at Northeastern College has been convicted of staging a hoax explosion on 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 superb of as much as $250,000 for every offense.
Two attorneys representing Duhaime withdrew from the case in January, courtroom paperwork present. A public defender who changed them couldn’t instantly be reached for remark Saturday.
Duhaime labored because the college’s new know-how 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 arduous plastic instances, and that when he opened one of many instances, it exploded and sharp objects flew out and injured his arms.
Duhaime’s 911 name sparked a serious response from legislation enforcement, who evacuated the realm and referred to as within the bomb squad.
He confirmed police a letter he advised them he’d discovered contained in the case, which claimed the lab was making an attempt to get folks to dwell inside a digital actuality world and was secretly working with Fb founder Mark Zuckerberg and the U.S. authorities.
“In the case you got today we could have planted explosives but not this time!!!” the word learn, courtroom paperwork present. “Take notice!!! You have 2 months to take operations down or else!!!!!”
However Duhaime’s story rapidly unraveled, in response to the FBI. They didn’t 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 harm to his shirt sleeves. And when brokers searched Duhaime’s pc, they discovered a duplicate of the letter in a backup folder that he’d written just a few 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,” Appearing U.S. Legal professional Joshua Levy stated in an announcement. “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 personal college, has greater than 18,000 undergraduate college students and 22,000 graduate college students.
Duhaime is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 2.
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Perry reported from Meredith, New Hampshire.
