Background: Law enforcement responds to the bomb hoax at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, September 2022 (YouTube/WBZ depicting). Inset: Jason Duhaime (Northeastern University file photo).
A former employee at Northeastern University in Massachusetts who created a panic on campus and triggered an investigation by the FBI after he made up a phony story about an explosion going off inside packages sent to the university lab where he worked has been found guilty by a federal jury.
Jason Duhaime, 46, was convicted on June 28 of intentionally conveying false and misleading information related to an explosive device and two counts of making false statements to a federal law enforcement agent.
Duhaime, who worked as Northeastern University’s new technology manager and director for its immersive media lab, is a former resident of San Antonio, Texas. He started working at the lab in Massachusetts in September 2022. Prosecutors said he called the university’s police department on Sept. 13 to report that he was “injured by sharp objects expelled from a plastic case he opened” while at the lab.
He told a police dispatcher that he and a university student had collected several packages that were delivered to Northeastern earlier that day and brought them into the lab. Duhaime described two of the items he picked up as being ultra-durable “Pelican”- style cases and that upon opening one, a very sharp object flew out and went up his shirt sleeves.
Duhaime told police his arms had been injured and that the case also contained a “violent” letter. The letter was dated Sept. 12, 2022, and vowed to harm managers inside Northeastern’s virtual reality lab if they did not cease operations or to “destroy” the lab itself.
“It has come to our attention that this VR lab is trying to change us as a world! Trying to get us to live in a world that we only communicate through headsets and live in a land called the METEVERSE! [sic] That we have computers paint pictures through AI!!!!! You are trying to change the fabric of the ideology of a peoplee [sic]! Trying to get us all to live inside a virtual f—– up world!!!! You are not the creator!!!!! You think you are!!! We know you are the anti-Christ sent to this world to change everything!!! We will stop you!” the letter stated. “We know you are working with Mr. Mark Zuckerberg and the U.S. government!!!!!… In the case you got today we could have planted explosives but not this time!!!! [Emphasis original]
As Law&Crime previously reported, when police first responded to Duhaime’s call, they said the “Pelican” case that supposedly contained the explosives that shot up his sleeves was empty. The case bore no dents or marks, cracks or other signs that it had been exposed to any sort of explosive discharge.
“Likewise, aside from several fold marks, the Letter was pristine,” an FBI affidavit stated.
His arms also had several small “superficial marks” and bruises but his shirt was not rumpled, damaged or torn through.
As it would turn out, the FBI would find a “word-for-word” copy of the threatening letter on Duhaime’s laptop and metadata reviewed by forensic analysts determined it was created just hours before he called 911.
Remarkably, when Duhaime was first interviewed by law enforcement officials and was informed that it was a crime to lie to them, he declared: “I’m telling you the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me God.”
“Staging a hoax explosion and lying to the FBI about it isn’t a harmless act. It’s a crime,” Jodi Cohen, special agent in charge of the FBI Boston Division, said in a statement last week.
Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy emphasized that bomb hoaxes like the one Duhaime pulled off made people in the region fearful and diverted important law enforcement personnel and resources. Prosecutors said his hoax triggered involvement of the Boston Police Department’s bomb squad, federal and state authorities and prompted the evacuation of a portion of the Northeastern campus.
When he is sentenced — a date has not yet been set — he faces up to five years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
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