Jake J. Brahm Pleads Guilty

UPDATE, June 5, 2008: Brahm sentenced
______________


Jake J. Brahm (aka "javness")

Time for an update on Wauwatosa man Jake J. Brahm---

Brahm has accepted responsibility for posting threats on the Internet.

NEWARK, N.J. -- A man pleaded guilty Thursday to making bogus Internet postings warning of terrorist attacks against seven NFL stadiums in 2006.

Jake J. Brahm admitted that he posted false information that so-called dirty bombs would be detonated at the stadiums in Miami, Atlanta, Seattle, Houston, Oakland, Cleveland and New York on Oct. 22, 2006.

He said the reference to New York was intended to indicate Giants Stadium, in East Rutherford, N.J., where the Jets played the Detroit Lions that day.

Brahm, 22, of Wauwatosa, Wis., pleaded guilty to a one-count indictment that had been handed up exactly a year earlier. The charge, part of the Patriot Act, accused him of willfully conveying false information that the stadiums would be attacked by terrorists with weapons of mass destruction and "radiological dispersal devices."

Brahm admitted composing and posting the threat about 40 times on a Web site between September and Oct. 18, 2006. The message said that bombs would be delivered by trucks and that "the death toll will approach 100,000 from the initial blasts and countless other fatalities will later occur as result from radioactive fallout."

The posting added that the stadium explosions would be praised by Osama bin Laden as "America's Hiroshima" and spark global conflicts.

That's extremely serious stuff.

Brahm remains free on bail and faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when sentenced June 5 by U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares.

A message seeking comment from Brahm's lawyer, Walter A. Lesnevich, was not immediately returned. When Brahm was indicted last year, the lawyer said the incident was "greatly blown out of proportion."

"This was a stupid mistake by a kid that nobody took seriously," Lesnevich said last year.

Wrong.

It was a "stupid mistake" by a MAN that lots of people took seriously.

What did Brahm's threat cost taxpayers? How much fear did Brahm succeed in spreading?

I hope that Brahm's sentence will reflect the high toll his "prank" cost, both in dollars and fear.