N.J. man pleads guilty to calling bomb threats into NBA office
A 19-year-old man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to making a series of fake bomb threats at an NBA league office in Secaucus, N.J., this summer. From The (Bergen) Record:
Jose L. Quesada Jr. admitted to U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares that he made the threatening calls with his cellphone over a period of days beginning July 26. At the time, Quesada was employed as a security guard for NBA Properties Inc., at 100 Plaza Drive.
He admitted leaving multiple voice mail messages saying that he was going to blow up the building and kill people.
Seven voice mails, to be specific, according to the Wall Street Journal's initial story on Quesada's charges:
Mr. Quesada allegedly left a threatening voice mail on Monday morning, five more voice mails in a 16-minute period on Tuesday night and a seventh voice mail on Wednesday afternoon, according to a criminal complaint.
In one voice mail Tuesday night, Mr. Quesada allegedly said, "Leave the building. It's gonna blow up. Leave the building. No where to go. It's gonna go up. It's gonna go 'Boom!'"
The Jersey Journal also quoted Quesada as saying in one message, "I put a bomb outside ... Gonna kill all the NBA. ... There's a bomb outside the complex in the parking lot. I put a bomb outside in the bush. No way out. Gonna blow up at 9:00 o'clock in the morning. Good luck ... If you come out, it will blow up." Charming.
Law enforcement evacuated the four-story office building at 100 Plaza Drive after the calls were reported, combing the building with bomb-sniffing K-9 units and searching the area. Thankfully, as Quesada later admitted to federal investigators, the messages were bunk and there were no explosives.
Quesada's sentencing is scheduled for March 7. He could catch up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, all for making some unconscionably stupid phone calls. Hope it was worth it, Jose.
