Posted August 6, 2004.

E-mailed Threat Nets Writing Assignment

A juvenile-court judge has ordered a teenager—charged with using a library computer to send threatening e-mails to government officials, including a death threat to President Bush—to write a research paper on homeland security as a punishment. Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge Joseph Bounds told the 14-year-old Roanoke, Virginia, youth August 3 that there was one stipulation: He must not use the Internet to write the paper.

The August 5 Washington Post reported that the teenager pleaded no contest in May to using a computer in the Vinton branch of the Roanoke County Public Library to send the e-mails, which also included a threat to bomb the library.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt it was somewhere between an attempt to get some attention and a prank,” said the youth’s attorney, Mark Kidd. He added that his client can find plenty of material on homeland security at the library, even without the Internet.

Posted August 6, 2004.