For calling in 11 threats to schools in Hillsborough County, Bryan Boggs, 17, gets a two-year sentence.
By MELANIE AVE
Published November 27, 2003
Boggs
TAMPA - A teenager will spend two years in prison for calling in a series of prank bomb threats that repeatedly emptied 200 Hillsborough County public schools and frazzled teachers, students and administrators.
The sentence imposed Wednesday on 17-year-old Bryan Boggs was the harshest of any punishment for several teens accused of making a recent spate of prank calls.
Circuit Judge Ronald Ficarrotta sentenced Boggs after he pleaded guilty to 11 felony counts of threatening to discharge a destructive device. In an agreement with prosecutors, 11 misdemeanor counts of disrupting a school function were dropped.
The judge asked Boggs if he understood that he could serve the entire sentence.
"Yes sir," the teen said quietly, standing handcuffed in his orange jail jumpsuit.
Boggs has been in jail since April, when authorities traced the prank calls to a cell phone he had been using.
State Attorney Mark Ober said the sentence reaffirms his goal of aggressively prosecuting all prank bomb threats.
"I think justice was served," he said. "I'm hopeful he will get beyond the punitive measures today and become a productive citizen."
In addition to prison time, Boggs was sentenced to two years of probation after his release. He also was ordered to pay the school district $10,000 in restitution and, at the request of prosecutors, must apologize to the School Board and Armwood High School students.
"I think he does owe them an apology," said Hillsborough deputy superintendent Randy Poindexter. "It will help other students know if you do this, you will be held accountable."
Authorities said Boggs, who has a juvenile record for stealing and a troubled family life, made the calls from his mother's old cell phone while he was attending a high school equivalency course at Armwood.
Nine of the 11 calls were not specific to any school. Under district policy, that means all 200 schools had to be cleared of 170,000 students and searched by a trained team of teachers. Two calls targeted Armwood, where students waited out the search on the football field.
After his arrest, Boggs confessed to deputies, saying he made the calls so he could hang out with his friends.
Prosecutor Doug Covington told the court the cost to the school district was "incalculable."
"I don't know if he realizes the consequences of this type of behavior," Covington said. "The magnitude is phenomenal.
The teen's teary-eyed mother, Vonda Boggs, told the judge she was sorry.
"He's my son," she said.
"I appreciate you saying you're sorry, but I'd like to hear it from him," said Ficarrotta, turning to look at the teen.
"I'm sorry sir," the boy said.
After he was sentenced, his divorced parents had little to say. Both are hoping he will serve out his sentence in a juvenile boot camp, since the judge gave him youthful offender status.
Boggs was sentenced as an adult, but because of his age he qualified as a "youthful offender," which makes him eligible to serve his time in a facility for younger inmates. Officials had not yet determined whether Boggs met the requirements for boot camp.
Ober's office was originally seeking 47 months prison time.
Two years ago, Ober vowed that high school students accused of making false bomb threats would be prosecuted in adult court, though most have received juvenile sanctions.
In the past three years, Hillsborough school bomb threats have dropped from 139 in 2000 to last year's 92.
Vonda Boggs said she doesn't believe her son presented his true feelings to the judge.
"He's shy," she said. "It's hard for him to get up in front of people. I know he is sorry."
