A student arrested for allegedly making a bomb threat against the International Business School in May is back at Brandeis after the case against him was dismissed because the prosecution could not locate several key witnesses. A student, was suspended after his arrest on May 5. Since being suspended and through his Aug. 16 trial, the student has adamantly maintained his innocence, insisting he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"I have absolutely no reason to do something like that," said the student, referring to the threat which shut down the Sachar Academic Complex. "I was in New York on September 11 and I have friends who lost people. I had no motive and no reason to do it."

Dean of Student Life Rick Sawyer lifted the student's suspension on Aug. 17, according to an e-mail from the dean that was provided by the student. The e-mail also informed the student that his case with the Brandeis judicial system had been tentatively placed on hold. Sawyer declined to comment, citing legal restrictions of the U.S. Family Educational Rights and Protection Act.

Emily LaGrassa, a spokesperson for Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley said that prosecutors "made every attempt to have the witnesses prepared for trial," but that they weren't in the area at the time of trial.

But because the student was not acquitted, charges can be brought against him again, though LaGrassa declined to speculate on that possibility.

Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan declined to comment, saying the investigation was still pending.

The threat was e-mailed anonymously to several administrators, including Joanna Gould of the president's office, Chief Operating Officer Peter French and Dan Feldman of the executive vice president's office.

Callahan told the Justice in May that he asked former Information Technology Services director Rich Graves for help in identifying the source, and that Graves traced the e-mail to a computer known as "Shapiro35," located on the first floor of the Shapiro Campus Center library.

A police report reviewed by the Justice indicates that the threat was sent at 10:32 a.m. on May 5 and that two UNet Help Desk employees remembered seeing the student, who also works for UNet, at the computer the threat was sent from between 10:15 and 10:30 a.m.

The police report identified those witnesses as Ian Roy '05 and Aaron Buckler '07. Neither could be reached for comment at press time, and the student, a UNet senior manager, acknowledged being at the computer in question around 10 a.m., and reasoned that the two remembered him because he is their friend and coworker.

"People come and go all the time," he said.

Callahan confirmed that there are security cameras throughout the Shapiro Library, but declined to say whether there is one in the room from which the threat was sent, or whether any cameras captured the crime, only saying that all evidence had been turned over to the District Attorney's office.

The police report also stated that someone opened Microsoft Internet Explorer on "Shapiro35" at 10:16 a.m., and that the browser session extended until 10:32 a.m. The user apparently accessed Public Safety's emergency website, as well as Yahoo! Mail from which the e-mail was sent under the e-mail address bombatbrandeis@yahoo.com.

Though the nature of the evidence against the student remains unclear and he has yet to be fully vindicated, he hopes to move on with his life and put what was a difficult summer behind him.


"I just want to be myself," the student said. "Do well, stay in school and study hard.


  — This content has been edited to remove the name of a former Brandeis student, as of April 2024.