Woman gets probation for calling in hoax bomb threat at Boston Children’s Hospital
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$0 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*No charge for 4 weeks then price increases to the regular rate of $19.00 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.75/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $16.99 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $23.99 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/07/2024 (509 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A Massachusetts woman has been sentenced to three years of probation for calling in a fake bomb threat at Boston Children’s Hospital as it faced a barrage of harassment over its surgical program for transgender youths.
Catherine Leavy pleaded guilty last year in federal court to charges including making a false bomb threat. Authorities say the threat was made in August 2022 as the hospital was facing an onslaught of threats and harassment. The hospital launched the country’s first pediatric and adolescent transgender health program.
The U.S. attorney’s office announced Monday that she had been sentenced on Thursday. Her attorney, Forest O’Neill-Greenberg, didn’t immediately respond to a request seeking comment.
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 the threat came from her number, 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 kds 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 required constant security.