GravityX Exchange:Woman pleads guilty to calling in hoax bomb threat at Boston Children’s Hospital

2025-05-05 23:03:59source:Chainkeencategory:reviews

BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts woman pleaded guilty on GravityX ExchangeThursday to calling in a fake bomb threat to Boston Children’s Hospital as it faced a barrage of harassment over its surgical program for transgender youths.

Catherine Leavy, who was arrested last year at her home in Westfield, pleaded guilty in Boston federal court to charges including making a false bomb threat, according to prosecutors. She’s scheduled to be sentenced in March.

The most serious charge she pleaded guilty to carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Her attorney, Forest O’Neill-Greenberg, didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Other news Virginia visits Boston College in matchup of struggling ACC teamsMassachusetts has a huge waitlist for state-funded housing. So why are 2,300 units vacant?Climate activists disrupt traffic in Boston to call attention to fossil fuel policies

Authorities say the threat was called in August 2022 as the hospital, which launched the nation’s first pediatric and adolescent transgender health program, was facing an onslaught of threats and harassment.

The hospital became the focus of far-right social media accounts, news outlets and bloggers last year after they found informational YouTube videos published by the hospital about surgical offerings for transgender patients.

The caller said: “There is a bomb on the way to the hospital, you better evacuate everybody you sickos,” according to court documents. The threat resulted in a lockdown of the hospital. No explosives were found.

Leavy initially denied making the threat during an interview with FBI agents, according to court documents. After agents told her that phone records indicated her number made the threat, she admitted doing so, but said she had no intention of actually bombing the hospital, prosecutors say. She “expressed disapproval” of the hospital “on multiple occasions” during the interview, according to court papers.

Boston Children’s Hospital is among several institutions that provide medical care for transgender kids that have become the target of threats. Medical associations said last year that children’s hospitals nationwide had substantially increased security and had to work with law enforcement, and that some providers needed to get constant security.

More:reviews

Recommend

These Australian twins have gone viral after speaking in synch

Do you recall the prime early days of YouTube? When a video making the rounds was so strange, remark

Dick Van Dyke learns ukulele at age 97: 'Never too late to start something new'

You're never too old to pick up a new hobby − just ask Dick Van Dyke.The 97-year-old comedy legend s

New COVID variants EG.5, FL.1.5.1 and BA.2.86 are spreading. Here's what to know.

Health authorities say they're closely tracking the spread of three new COVID-19 variants now spread