Prosecutor believes Wash.
suspect sent bomb e-mail
BY MARK ROSMAN and LARRY RAMER
Staff Writers
MARLBORO — Monmouth County Prosecutor John Kaye believes an 18-year-old Darrington, Wash., resident is responsible for sending a threatening e-mail to the Marlboro K-8 school district on May 19.
According to an article published in the Herald News of Washington, Elroy Lamont was arrested by FBI agents in Darrington on May 21 and charged with sending e-mail bomb threats to several schools in that state last week.
Following an investigation that crossed the nation, Kaye said he believes Lamont is the person responsible for sending an e-mail containing a threat to the Marlboro school district.
Kaye said Lamont has not been charged with a crime in New Jersey and may not be if he receives punishment in Washington state. The article in the Herald News indicated that Lamont could face up to 10 years in jail for each count on the charges there.
"He is facing serious charges in Washington, and we are going to wait and see what happens there," Kaye said. "We are looking at charges that could bring him five to 10 years in New Jersey. If he’s not punished out there, he will be [punished] here."
Kaye said the investigation was aided by private agencies that worked with law enforcement officials to track down the alleged computer criminal.
The case took law enforcement officers through Ohio, after the prosecutor’s office and Marlboro police obtained search warrants for a private residence. The threatening e-mail that wound up in Marlboro had passed through a computer in that home through what Kaye called a Trojan horse virus.
"Those people in Ohio were very surprised to find out their computer was being used in that way," the prosecutor said.
Kaye said Monday that authorities here have no evidence of a connection linking Lamont to the Marlboro school district. He said the e-mail that was sent to Marlboro was identical to the threatening message Lamont is charged with sending to the schools in Washington state.
The Herald News story reported that schools in the Darrington and Arlington school districts had received bomb threats.
Lamont was charged in Washington with three counts of making false threats to use explosives. Lamont was initially taken for a mental evaluation before federal agents brought him into custody, according to the Herald News.
The threat sent via e-mail to the Marlboro school district’s administrative offices last week touched off a series of searches that did not turn up any type of explosive device.
Police Chief Robert Holmes said the threat was a hoax.
"A bomb has been planted somewhere in your school," the message stated, according to Sharon Witchel, the district’s public information officer.
There are eight schools (one early learning center, five elementary schools, two middle schools) in the K-8 district.
Police officers searched the schools and buses on May 19, 20 and 21, but did not find anything suspicious, Witchel said. Police also increased patrols around the schools on those days, she added.
The threatening e-mail was opened by district administrators on May 19 at about 9 a.m.
The message claimed a bomb was supposed to have detonated at 7:39 a.m. that day, Witchel said.
The e-mail, which did not mention a specific school or name the Marlboro K-8 school district, indicated the threat was being made by the Environmental Liberation Front (ELF), a radical environmental group, Superintendent of Schools David Abbott wrote in a letter to parents.
However, in response to an e-mail inquiry from the News Transcript, a person claiming to represent ELF’s press office denied knowing about the threat.
"It is highly unlikely that any member of the ELF would threaten to blow up a … school, and this is the first we have heard of any such threat," ELF’s spokesperson wrote.
As a means of furthering its agenda, ELF usually targets construction sites, SUV dealerships and logging camps, Abbott informed parents.
According to Abbott’s letter, the threatening e-mail was traced to a computer in Waynesville, Ohio, about 25 miles northeast of Cincinnati. Before arriving in the computer at the school district’s office, the message was rerouted through Europe, the Midwest and the East Coast, Abbott added.