Stoughton Man Charged for Sending Bomb Threats to Schools

BOSTON – A Stoughton man was arrested and will appear in U.S. District Court in Boston today to face federal charges for sending multiple false bomb threats to schools in Illinois, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and North Carolina.

Anthony Rae, 24, was charged via criminal complaint with bomb threats.  Rae had previously been charged in Dedham District Court; however, those charges were dismissed today and he was taken into federal custody.  Rae is scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge David H. Hennessy in Boston at 2:15.

According to the complaint, Rae used three different email accounts to send bomb threats to educational institutions in four different states over the past year.  Rae allegedly began in October 2014 when he sent two emails from a Gmail account he created threatening to bomb an elementary school in Chicago, Ill., and several public schools in Norwood, Mass.  After that, Rae allegedly hacked his mother’s Hotmail account and used it to send two separate bomb threats to his own school – ITT Technical Institute in Norwood.

A search warrant was obtained for Rae’s residence and numerous electronic devices were seized.  The following day, Rae allegedly used a public computer available to tenants of his apartment complex to continue his bomb threat spree – sending a bomb threat to Rhode Island College in Providence, R.I.  Massachusetts authorities arrested Rae on June 19, 2015, and charged him with the three Massachusetts threats.  Rae was released on conditions, which included prohibitions on the use of electronic devices and GPS monitoring.  Despite the strict conditions of release, in September 2015, Rae created another Gmail account and threatened to bomb North Carolina State University in Raleigh, N.C.

The charging statute provides a sentence of no greater than 10 years in prison, three years supervised release, and a fine of $250,000.  Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties.  Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division, made the announcement today.  This case was also investigated the Chicago Police Department – Arson Section, Norwood, and Stoughton Police Departments, Rhode Island State Police Computer Crimes Unit, and the Rhode Island College and North Carolina State University Campus Police Departments.  Significant assistance was also provided by the Massachusetts MetroLEC Cyber Crimes Unit and the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jordi de Llano of Ortiz’s Major Crimes Unit.