A Massachusetts woman has been sentenced to three years of probation for calling in a fake bomb threat at Boston Children鈥檚 Hospital as it faced a barrage of harassment over its surgical program for transgender youths.
Catherine Leavy pleaded guilty last year in federal court to charges including making a false bomb threat. Authorities say the threat was made in August 2022 as the hospital was facing an onslaught of threats and harassment. The hospital launched the country鈥檚 first pediatric and adolescent transgender health program.
The U.S. attorney鈥檚 office announced Monday that she had been sentenced on Thursday. Her attorney, Forest O鈥橬eill-Greenberg, didn鈥檛 immediately respond to a request seeking comment.
The hospital became the focus of far-right social media accounts, news outlets and bloggers last year after they found informational YouTube videos published by the hospital about surgical offerings for transgender patients.
The caller said: 鈥淭here is a bomb on the way to the hospital, you better evacuate everybody you sickos,鈥� according to court documents. The threat resulted in a lockdown of the hospital. No explosives were found.
Leavy initially denied making the threat during an interview with FBI agents, according to court documents. After agents told her that phone records indicated the threat came from her number, she admitted doing so, but said she had no intention of actually bombing the hospital, prosecutors say. She 鈥渆xpressed disapproval鈥� of the hospital 鈥渙n multiple occasions鈥� during the interview, according to court papers.
Boston Children鈥檚 Hospital is among several institutions that provide medical care for transgender kds that have become the target of threats. that children鈥檚 hospitals nationwide had substantially increased security and had to work with law enforcement, and that some providers required constant security.
The Associated Press
