Bomb hoax sends former Northeastern University employee to prison for a year

BOSTON (AP) — A former Northeastern University employee who lied to the FBI about a package blowing up in his arms at the Boston campus has been sentenced to just over a year in prison for the hoax.

Jason Duhaime, 47, from San Antonio, Texas, was convicted on the federal charges in June of intentionally conveying false and misleading information related to an explosive device and two counts of making materially false statements to a federal law enforcement agent. He was sentenced Monday.

“Bomb hoaxes are not a harmless act, they inflict fear, divert resources and put both first responders and the public at real risk as they race to the scene,” United States Attorney Joshua Levy said in a statement. “One phone call may land you in jail.”

Duhaime worked as the university’s new technology manager and director of the Immersive Media Lab. In September 2022, he called the university police to say he’d collected several packages from a mail area, including two Pelican hard plastic cases, and that when he opened one of the cases, it exploded and sharp objects flew out and injured his arms.

Duhaime’s 911 call sparked a major response from law enforcement, who evacuated the area and called in the bomb squad.

He showed police a letter he told them he’d found inside the case, which claimed the lab was trying to get people to live inside a virtual reality world and was secretly working with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and the U.S. government.

“In the case you got today we could have planted explosives but not this time!!!” the note read, court documents show. “Take notice!!! You have 2 months to take operations down or else!!!!!”

But Duhaime’s story quickly unraveled, according to the FBI. They didn’t find anything in the cases and noted the letter appeared to be in pristine condition. The FBI said Duhaime had superficial injuries to his arms, but no damage to his shirt sleeves. And when agents searched Duhaime’s computer, they found a copy of the letter in a backup folder that he’d written a few hours before calling 911.

Prosecutors, in their sentence memorandum, had requested Duhaime get a year and a day in jail for actions they called “enormously disruptive and wasteful.”

“The defendant didn’t just orchestrate a hoax: he perpetuated it by lying to investigators during multiple interviews,” Levy wrote. “Even worse, the last of these interviews was prompted by the defendant himself, when he unexpectedly summoned investigators to his hotel room in order to talk further. Rather than come clean, the defendant lied for a third time about the incident, even naming specific individuals who he thought might have a motive to harm the lab.”

Duhaime's attorney argued that his client should be given time served, noting he had no criminal record, had struggling to find work and has repeatedly been hospitalized for spinal problems.

“Today, Mr. Duhaime is a convicted felon and, in many respects, a ruined man. His employment at Northeastern University was terminated after the incident,” his public defender, Scott Lauer wrote. “His life savings were depleted through the hiring of predecessor counsel. The notoriety of his case made it difficult for him to find employment and took a toll on his mental health; it also estranged him from family members and friends.”

Northeastern, a private university, has more than 18,000 undergraduate students and 22,000 graduate students.