Posted on 05/07/2009 2:36:46 PM PDT by jaydubya2
HAMMOND, Ind. — The U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Indiana issued a press release Thursday in response to media reports about the arrest of 16-year-old Ashton Lundeby of North Carolina, who is being held at the Juvenile Justice Center in South Bend.
According to the release by U.S. attorney David Capp, his office “previously announced that a juvenile was arrested pursuant to a federal warrant. The arrest stems from a false bomb threat directed to Purdue University on Feb. 15 and similar threats directed to other schools.
“The FBI, the Purdue University Police Department and the Tippecanoe County prosecutor's office conducted an extensive investigation into this matter, resulting in that arrest. Over recent days, several media sources have reported information that is incorrect.
“Accordingly, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana wishes to further announce that a juvenile information has been filed and is pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana. That charge alleges a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 844(e), which prohibits sending false information about an attempt to kill, injure or intimidate any individual or to unlawfully to damage any building through an instrument of interstate commerce. This charge is unrelated to the Patriot Act.
“The juvenile has appeared in court on three occasions, once in North Carolina for an initial hearing and a detention hearing, and twice in Indiana for a continued initial hearing and a status hearing. At each hearing, the juvenile was represented by counsel. The government has filed a motion with the Court seeking to transfer the juvenile to adult status for prosecution pursuant to Title 18, United States Code, Section 5032; that motion is pending before the Court and is scheduled for a hearing during the month of May.
“The juvenile is presently housed in a juvenile facility in the Northern District of Indiana where he does not have contact with adult offenders. His mother has been apprised of each court appearance and has attended the hearing in North Carolina; she did not appear at either of the hearings in Indiana. The juvenile facility where he is housed permits family visits.
“Because the statutes governing juvenile proceedings limit public disclosure of information related to a juvenile case, the United States Attorney declines any further comment.”
The media attention on the case so far has centered around Lundeby's mother protesting the arrest of her 16-year-old son from his home in Oxford, N.C. WRAL-TV reported last week that the 10th-grade home-schooler is being held on a criminal complaint that he made a bomb threat from his home on the night of Feb. 15. The article has since been circulating on the Internet as a civil-rights infringement under Patriot Act constraints.
The family was at a church function that night, his mother, Annette Lundeby, told the TV station.
If he made bomb threats, he will be and should be in deep doodoo
ping
Don’t know if the mother is saying the boy has an alibi (being at a church function) or what. If the mother believes the charges are bogus and that the boy is being picked on for home schooling, then we can see why she would rant (though she would be smarter to keep mum until the matter is adjudicated).
Wonder why she hasn’t visited/attended hearings? Unless that is false info.
She might be a bit off her pickle herself, and the attorney for the boy does not want her there.
If the kid has an alibi, he could be innocent. Even the feds make mistakes. I would hate to get arrested because someone spoofed my IP address or cracked my wireless router encryption.
Or, hacked your wireless phone, or opened the TNI on the side of the house and just placed a land line call from there.
I read somewhere that local police have webcam video of the kid calling in bomb threats and laughing about it.
Still, I don’t see the point of hauling a 16 year old with no prior record halfway across the country, charging him as an adult, and putting him in a Federal prison where he will most certainly be raped.
If they want to charge him and put him in a local juvenile hall for however long, that should be enough. Kids do stupid things - why destroy him?
Maybe she can’t afford to get there, hotel, etc.
We much prefer the earlier posts of jack booted thug activity on this topic.
We will simply drive on to the next outrage.
That would have been awfully sick of him, recording these pranks for posterity.
Tat is exactly what she is saying. I read an article earlier that said she is saying that his ISP number was hijacked because they were at a church function all night and wasn’t home to have done it.
Good point; it does seem cold but perhaps there are other factors.
Don’t know if the mother is saying the boy has an alibi (being at a church function) or what.
Odd wording from the prosecutor. If all the threats were made the same day, you'd think he'd say "false bomb threats directod to Purdue University and other schools on Feb 15th." Makes me wonder if the threats were on different days and the prosecution is waiting to see what else the mom says.
I heard her interviewed on my local NC radio station. She sounded like a woman without much money--and money is what it takes to take off work and visit Indiana. Her son has a court appointed attorney--showing they have very little means.
When she explained what happened in the arrest it sounded like something out of Soviet-era eastern Europe. 11 FBI agents barged in, in the middle of the night--without showing her the warrant.
She claims that her son had been getting odd calls and threats for a couple weeks prior--and when she told the cops this--and brought up the possibility the calls may have been faked from their house (spoofing? phishing? hacking? etc.) they said that was "not possible." (which shows the agents ignorance...it definitely is possible).
I realize most any Mom will defend her little darling, now matter how crazy and horrible he is, however, she did not sound like a nutcase, or a crank--and her case does sound like a genuine mistaken-identity nightmare.
Apparently her attorney has been uncommunicative (surprise, surprise...) and since it is a federal case involving alleged threats of explosives across state lines--I cannot see why the Patriot Act would NOT be involved.
Just hearing the Mom's side of things, I think if I were a lawyer--I'd take her case...
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/026686.html
I knew there was something more to this story.
he’s all over youtube...in fact, in that link you added, if you go to the wired.com article it references (http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/05/teenage-bomb-threat-suspect-was-an-internet-prank-phone-call-star/
[Lundeby denies knowing anything about her son staging bomb hoaxes. But she admits seeing a YouTube video in which “Tyrone” jokes that he’s hidden a bomb in a box of take-out chicken.
In that call — laced with profanity and racist slurs — Tyrone is heard phoning a New York cigar shop while watching on a webcam streamed though the video-feed site New York City Live. When he sees a food delivery arrive at the checkout counter, he tells the clerk, “Your chicken is here. It contains the bomb which will detonate. It’s my bomb. It’s the bomb that will detonate in five minutes. The fried chicken has a bomb in it.”]
To say laced with profanity and racist slurs is understatement of the year. But, in anycase...there is a link to the youtube video of the call...and it’s a bomb threat. His mom knew he made bomb threats...also in the article is this nugget:
[Bennett says Lundeby knew her son had made bomb threats. “His mother knew that he was making calls, because she’d come on the microphone when he was talking and tell him not to do any bomb threats because the house was going to get raided,” he says. “He said he wasn’t going to do any more bomb threats because his mom didn’t approve of them. But then he did them anyway.”]
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