Suspect in South Burlington threats is released

BURLINGTON — A federal judge granted the release of the South Burlington High School student accused of making threats against teachers and fellow students.

Josiah Leach, 18, was arrested Friday and had remained in police custody after an initial court appearance Monday. Judge Christina Reiss granted his release to house arrest Thursday over objections from the U.S. attorney’s office.

Leach is accused of making a series of escalating threats last week using a web of email accounts, Facebook and a phone call. The threats led to three days of lockdowns at the high school and resulted in school being canceled districtwide on Friday.

Leach faces a felony charge in federal court of “knowingly transmitting in interstate commerce a communication that includes a threat to injure the person or another.” The charge carries up to a five-year prison sentence.

Reiss imposed conditions on Leach’s release, requiring that he wear a GPS monitoring bracelet, stay 500 feet away from the South Burlington high school and middle school, have no contact with the people he allegedly threatened, and participate in any mental health counseling recommended by the pretrial services office.

The U.S. attorney’s office, in its initial motion for his detention, stated that Leach admitted to police that he sent at least one of the threatening emails.

Police and prosecutors have presented no evidence that Leach had access to weapons or made any concrete plans to follow through on the threats he is alleged to have made. They included threats to kill students and staff using knives and guns.

The U.S. attorney’s office wrote in a supplemental motion intended to bolster its case for detention that Leach has had at least 30 run-ins with police, including several arrests. He’s never been convicted of a crime.

The motion answers one question that has vexed observers, explaining that the video threat posted to Facebook, and sent to police and school officials, was created by dubbing over a YouTube video that has long existed online.

The filing also says Leach told police “he felt he had been treated as a joke and wanted others to feel the same way,” which is as close to a motive for the threats that any law enforcement official has provided.

Leach also told police he never intended to hurt anyone, according to the government’s motion, but the U.S. attorney dismisses that statement, saying Leach told other “self-serving lies” while speaking with officers.

Leach was released into his mother’s custody. He and his family did not speak to reporters as they left the courthouse, according to the Burlington Free Press.

The post Suspect in South Burlington threats is released appeared first on VTDigger.