A state Supreme Court justice Monday sentenced the man responsible for calling in four separate bomb threats to Lawrinson Residence Hall to six months in a correctional facility and five years of probation.

Jason Walburger, who was a janitor in Lawrinson at the time he called in the threats, has also been issued an order of protection to stay away from the Syracuse University campus, said university spokesman Kevin Morrow.

Walburger pled guilty to four counts of falsely reporting an incident. Morrow said that Walburger was given the maximum sentence for the crimes he plead guilty for.

Under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001 that Gov. George E. Pataki passed a week after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Walburger could have been charged with a class E felony that carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison. The law introduced six new penal law offenses for persons who commit terrorist acts, make threats or provide material for terrorist acts.

Sgt. Tom Connellan of the Syracuse Police Department said the new laws were probably not used in this particular case because Walburger’s past record did not include terrorism-related activities.

Walburger made the calls from September to November. He was arrested Nov. 26 after admitting to making the calls. He was fired immediately.

Department of Public Safety Director Marlene Hall could not be reached for comment.

Walburger made each call from a different floor inside Lawrinson. One call came from an all-female floor.

Before Walburger was arrested, Public Safety increased security in Lawrinson by implementing several new measures, including 24-hour Resident Security Adviser coverage and having an extra Public Safety officer on duty during daytime hours and not allowing any non-Lawrinson resident to enter the building without first being signed in by a resident.

All of the restrictions have since been lifted.

“It’s unfortunate that he not only inconvenienced but also scared a lot of people,” Morrow said. “And that is not right.”

Published on February 26, 2002 at 12:00 pm