Teen sentenced to prison for airport threats

[aalmiss]

19 year old Deshon Brown has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison and ordered to pay a $4,000 fine for phoning in threats of violence to the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport. He had threatened to blow up the Delta terminal. Seems he made phone calls for 4 hours until he was caught. The article says he was "bored". Now he may be denied his career of choice.

Excerpt from article:
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"At a court hearing in August, Brown told a reporter that he had dreamed of becoming a federal marshal.

That's unlikely now that he has a felony conviction on his record."
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I suppose "suffer the consequences" had no meaning to him.

He actually got off pretty easy. He could have gotten up to 10 years and up to $250,000.

The following article can be found:
[b:d419319978][u:d419319978]Click here[/u:d419319978][/b:d419319978]

Dianne

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[b:d419319978]Teen sentenced to prison for airport threats[/b:d419319978]
By Toni Heinzl
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

FORT WORTH - A 19-year-old Californian could be a poster boy for a campaign warning people to take airport security seriously.

Deshon Brown, an aviation technology student, was sentenced Monday to 18 months in federal prison and ordered to pay a $4,000 fine for phoning in threats of violence to the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport.

Tears streamed down Brown's face as he left the federal courtroom in downtown Fort Worth. His father wrapped his arm around the teen-ager's shoulders.

Brown, who entered the Westwood College Institution of Aviation Technology in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood in October, may have to put aside his plans to become a certified aviation mechanic or to carry the badge of a deputy U.S. marshal.

On July 25, bored while waiting at D/FW after his flight to Los Angeles had been overbooked, Brown used his cellphone to call airport police dispatchers shortly after 7 a.m. Authorities said he threatened in a very low voice, "I'm going to blow up the Delta terminal at 9 a.m."

In October, he pleaded guilty to a federal charge of threatening to destroy a building by means of fire or explosion, a felony.

U.S. District Judge Terry Means of Fort Worth said security officials at the airport did not consider Brown's calls a prank.

"The so-called prank calls lasted for four hours," Means said. "Had he not been stopped, his behavior would have continued."

The maximum sentence for Brown's crimes is 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Means recommended that federal prison officials send Brown to a six-month program for nonviolent offenders called intensive confinement. Offenders who successfully complete the program spend the remainder of their sentences in a halfway house.

"I'm sorry that I've done that act," Brown told the judge. "I just ask for mercy."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Schattman acknowledged that there is no evidence that Brown intended to harm anybody, but he insisted that the young man deserved some prison time.

Airport police and security officials could not afford to treat Brown's calls as a prank, he said.

"There was a threat that he'd shoot at passengers," Schattman said about one of Brown's calls.

Brown told FBI agents that he made the calls because he thought it was fun and that he enjoyed watching the police respond to them, according to court records.

His defense attorney, Douglas Greene of Fort Worth, said he appreciates that Means gave Brown a short sentence but argued that Brown deserved more leniency.

"It was just a stupid prank that everybody overreacted to," Greene said. "But after 9-11, that's the climate we're in today."

Greene said he hopes federal prison officials will follow the judge's recommendation and order Brown to undergo the intensive confinement program as a way to help him move on with his life and avoid similar mistakes in the future.

"It would be a break for him, but it's hard getting into these programs," Greene said.

At a court hearing in August, Brown told a reporter that he had dreamed of becoming a federal marshal.

That's unlikely now that he has a felony conviction on his record.

"I think he's going to have to make different career plans," Schattman said.

Brown's calls prompted "a substantial law enforcement response" involving airport police, FBI agents and officers from the Transportation Security Administration, the prosecutor said.

Police cannot afford to downplay the potential seriousness of a threat, Police Chief Tom Shehan of the D/FW Airport Department of Public Safety said. His department responded with a large number of officers and used explosives-sniffing dogs to check vehicles. The terminal was not shut down.

Brown was arrested at the airport that day. His cellphone log included the calls made to the DPS communications center at the airport, according to court records.

"All told, we worked on it for the better part of the day," Shehan has said.

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[i:d419319978]Toni Heinzl, (817) 390-7684 theinzl@star-telegram.com[/i:d419319978]