A 22-year-old Connecticut man was sentenced to 366 days in federal prison as a result of his involvement in two swatting incidents in 2014 that led to evacuations at Allentown High School, Allentown, and St. John Vianney High School, Holmdel.
On Oct. 6, Chief U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall, sitting in New Haven, Conn., sentenced Matthew Tollis, of Wethersfield, Conn., to 366 days in prison, three years of probation and 300 hours of community service for his role in what turned out to be hoaxes.
“Swatting is not a schoolboy prank, it is a federal crime,” U.S. Attorney Deirdre Daly said.
She said she hopes the sentence will help put the brakes on swatting incidents.
“It is our hope that this prosecution and the knowledge that this defendant will serve time in prison and live with a felony conviction for the remainder of his life will deter others from engaging in this immature, dangerous and criminal behavior,” Daly said.
According to the FBI, swatting is the practice of making a hoax call to 911 to draw a response from law enforcement, which can include the deployment of a SWAT team.
In practice, a swatting call can be made through an Internet messaging program with one person posing as a victim or perpetrator of an emergency situation while others on the line remain silent and listen to the false narrative.
A swatting call is considered to be successful by its perpetrators if a SWAT team or other emergency personnel respond to the alleged threat.
“These hoaxes have expended critical law enforcement resources and caused severe emotional distress for thousands of victims,” Daly said.
According to the Department of Justice, Tollis said he was part of the online gaming group TeAM CrucifiX or Die, which allegedly made the threats to Allentown and St. John Vianney high schools, as well as to facilities in Texas, Florida and Massachusetts.
Although investigators said Tollis joined TeAM CrucifiX or Die through his online interaction in video games, officials said the participants interacted outside the confines of their games by making the fraudulent phone calls.
Investigators said Tollis and his fellow callers made false reports of active bombs, hostage situations and mass murder to law enforcement authorities between January and April 2014.
On Jan. 16, 2014, an individual called the Upper Freehold Regional School District and said there was a bomb at Allentown High School. Students in the district were evacuated from their schools.
The evacuation in Allentown occurred 24 hours after the St. John Vianney High School incident, in which a caller reported that there was a masked gunman in the Holmdel parochial school.
In both instances, police officers rushed to the schools to evacuate students and staff members. K-9 officers searched the buildings for explosives, but did not find any devices.
Although Tollis claimed he never personally spoke to emergency personnel during the calls, investigators alleged that he participated in at least six incidents.
In addition to the two high schools in Monmouth County, authorities said Tollis was included in calls made to Boston University, the University of Connecticut, the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center and a high school in Texas.
Tollis was taken into custody by the University of Connecticut Police Department on Sept. 3, 2014, in connection with his alleged involvement in a swatting incident at the university earlier that year. He was charged and released after posting a $10,000 bond.
On June 23, Tollis pleaded guilty to conspiring to engage in the malicious conveying of false information by way of a bomb threat hoax. He was sentenced on Oct. 6 and ordered to report to prison on Nov. 5.