American sentenced for bomb hoax

ELP Information Bulletin (30th July 2008)

Dear friends

ELP has just learnt that an American, who bombhoaxed a university if they didn't release their lab animals, has been sentenced to 15 months inside. At the moment we do not have an address for the American, but below is a mainstream media article about the man.


http://www.10news.com/news/17018382/detail.html

Ex-UCSD Worker Sentenced For Bomb Hoax

SAN DIEGO -- A former temporary worker at the University of California, San
Diego, who made bogus threats to blow up buildings on campus if research
animals weren't released, was sentenced Monday to 15 months in federal
prison and ordered to pay $10,419 in restitution.

Richard Sills, who pleaded guilty March 11 to one count of making threats
involving animal enterprises, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Larry
Burns.

The 55-year-old La Jolla resident admitted making two phone calls and
sending a letter to the university claiming there was a bomb on campus last
Dec. 5. A bogus device was found that morning at the Leichtag Family
Foundation Biomedical Research Building, where Sills was a temporary
employee at the time.

According to the indictment, Sills said in the second call, "Take this very
seriously. There is a bomb in the Leichtag Building. Take this very
seriously."

Sills also sent a letter to the UCSD Police Department stating that the
Animal Liberation Front would detonate remote-controlled explosive devices
the activist group had placed in six campus buildings unless animals from
campus research facilities were released, according to court papers.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Mazza said Sills' sentence was on the low end
of the agreed-upon federal sentencing guidelines because it did not appear
he was affiliated with the Animal Liberation Front.

"It (the bomb threat) was his form of _expression against testing on
animals," the prosecutor said.

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