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FBI Searches Home of Yale Book Thief in Bombing InvestigationFederal agents investigating last month’s bombing at Yale Law School searched the home of a former worker at Yale’s Beinecke Library who was jailed last year for stealing documents from the library.Benjamin Johnson, 23, had been living at his parents’ home in Hamden, Connecticut, since entering a community release program in February. He was returned to jail June 4, hours before the FBI and state police began searching the home, the New Haven Register reported June 6. A source told the newspaper that the raid was prompted by a meeting Johnson had with his parole officer, during which notes about explosives were found in Johnson’s backpack. Johnson’s attorney, Penn Rhodeen, insisted that his client had nothing to do with the bombing, which caused no injuries but damaged some 300 rare books. Rhodeen told the Register that Johnson is an aspiring writer who carried a notebook containing “exciting passages” from thrillers and other novels. “Exactly what the words were in the notebook, I don’t know, but it was nothing to do with Yale,” said Rhodeen. Johnson was sentenced to 15 months in prison for stealing and mutilating the documents, which included original letters from Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and other historic figures that he cut up, later selling the signatures on eBay. Posted June 9, 2003. |
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