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 Investigators said Eldo Kim, 20, admitted to making the e-mailed
threat that triggered evacuations on campus. Kim was charged in U.S.
District Court in Boston and if convicted, he could be sentenced to
as long as five years in prison, three years supervised release and
a $250,000 fine.
Kim was brought into court in handcuffs wearing Harvard sweatpants
and a gray T-shirt. He did not enter a plea and spoke only to
confirm to Magistrate Judge Judith Dein that he understood he has a
right to remain silent and a right to an attorney.
Dein released Kim into the custody of his sister, who lives nearby,
and an uncle. She ordered him to stay off the Harvard campus, other
than to return with the school's permission and an escort to
retrieve possessions he left behind.
"This is a very serious obligation," Dein said. "If you do go on the
(Harvard) grounds you must be escorted."
A Harvard spokesman declined on Wednesday to comment on whether Kim
remained a student at the Ivy League university.
On Monday, Harvard evacuated four buildings, including classroom
facilities and a dormitory, on its centuries-old campus in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, after receiving e-mails claiming "shrapnel
bombs" had been placed in two of the buildings.
The threat came about eight months after two homemade
pressure-cooker bombs filled with nails and ball bearings blew up at
the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and
injuring 264. The marathon bombing drew a heavy response from local,
state and federal law enforcement agents.
An agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation tracked Kim down
on Monday night at his Harvard campus dorm. The FBI agent said in
court papers that the student confessed to sending the hoax e-mails
to university police, several administrators and the student
newspaper.
The message said bombs had been placed in two of four named
buildings and added, "guess correctly ... be quick for they will go
off soon."
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"Kim stated that he was in Emerson Hall at 9:00 a.m. when the fire
alarm sounded and the building was evacuated," said an affidavit by
the FBI agent. "According to Kim, upon hearing the alarm, he knew
that his plan had worked."
Kim is a sophomore, the Harvard Crimson student newspaper reported.
He is a U.S. citizen who had renounced his Korean citizenship.
His uncle and sister appeared in court on Wednesday but declined to
speak to reporters.
One observer said it was unusual to see federal, rather than state
or local, prosecutors take on a hoax case at a university, but that
their involvement likely reflected the costs and high visibility of
the massive law-enforcement response, as well as post-9/11 and
post-marathon bombing jitters.
"We see the strong arm of the federal government being brought to
bear in the prosecutorial process of this kid, and I think it goes
hand-in-hand with that law enforcement response," said Tom Nolan,
chairman of the criminal justice department at the State University
of New York at Plattsburgh and a former Boston Police official.
"There's no way that a massive police response and the shutdown of
several buildings at Harvard University is going to result in
anything less than a federal prosecution," Nolan said.
Late last month, Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, placed
its campus on lockdown for almost a day after an anonymous caller
warned officials that his roommate was headed to the Ivy League
school and planning to shoot people. No gunman was found, and police
now regard that incident as a hoax.
(Reporting by Scott Malone; editing by Richard Valdmanis, Leslie
Adler and David Gregorio)
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