Ex-employee of Boston's Northeastern University gets prison for hoax bombing

By Nate Raymond

BOSTON (Reuters) - A former employee of Northeastern University was sentenced to one year in prison on Monday following his convicted for staging a hoax explosion in 2022 and fabricating a story about being injured after opening a package delivered to the school's campus in Boston.

Jason Duhaime, 47, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge William Young in Boston after a federal jury in June found him guilty of charges that he conveyed false information related to an explosive device and lied to investigators after an incident that prompted an evacuation of buildings on campus.

Police and bomb squads swarmed the area in one of the most significant responses to a bomb threat locally since the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and wounded 260 others.

Duhaime's lawyer, Scott Lauer, did not respond to a request for comment. He had argued for no prison time, citing declines in Duhaime's physical health, and at trial had argued that the hoax was someone else's doing.

The Sept. 13, 2022, emergency response began when Duhaime, at the time the new technology manager and director of Northeastern's Immersive Media Lab, called 911 to report he was injured after opening a package containing a "violent note."

Duhaime said "very sharp" objects flew out of the package, a hard plastic case. But prosecutors said Duhaime's arms had only superficial marks, while his shirt, the case and the note had no signs of damage.

The note ranted about virtual reality; the lab, a hub for immersive technologies; and Meta Platforms founder Mark Zuckerberg, and referenced matters known to a handful of people including Duhaime, prosecutors said.

When police and federal agents later interviewed Duhaime, he doubled down on his false story, claiming to be the victim of an attack, prosecutors said. He was arrested several days later in Texas, where he was living with his girlfriend.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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