NEW YORK (AP) — The Latest on the sentencing of a former journalist who admitted cyber stalking an ex-girlfriend and terrorizing Jewish groups with bomb threats (all times local):
FILE – This undated file photo provided by the Warren County Sheriff’s Department in Warrenton, Mo., shows Juan Thompson. Thompson, a former journalist who admitted cyber stalking an ex-girlfriend and terrorizing Jewish groups with bomb threats, has been sentenced in New York to five years in prison. Thompson was sentenced Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017, in Manhattan federal court. (Warren County Sheriff’s Department via AP, File)
5:35 p.m.
The stalking victim of a former St. Louis journalist sentenced in New York to five years in prison for bomb threats to Jewish centers is urging more attention be paid to domestic violence as a tool to fight terrorism.
New York social worker Francesca Rossi spoke at the sentencing of Juan Thompson on Wednesday.
She notes 93 percent of female homicides are committed by men the victims know and each man who committed domestic terrorism in the last year had a history of domestic violence.
She says cyber stalking and electronic warfare are a new look for domestic violence. She says she believes police didn’t respond to her repeated reports about Thompson because the threats came from phones and computers.
Thompson pleaded guilty in June and apologized at Wednesday’s sentencing.
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2:10 p.m.
A former journalist who admitted cyber stalking an ex-girlfriend and terrorizing Jewish groups with bomb threats has been sentenced in New York to five years in prison.
Juan Thompson was sentenced Wednesday in Manhattan federal court.
Judge P. Kevin Castel calls Thompson’s crimes domestic terrorism. He sentenced Thompson, of St. Louis, to a year longer than the federal sentencing guidelines recommended. He cited the eloquence of a victim statement delivered by Thompson’s ex-girlfriend, Francesca Rossi.
Rossi says Thompson began abusing her during their relationship and intensified the terror delivered largely through social media and electronic communications after they broke up.
Thompson pleaded guilty in June to cyber stalking and making fake bomb threats to a dozen Jewish community centers and day schools.
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