BURLINGTON — A teenager who pleaded guilty to making a series of escalating threats against students and classmates at South Burlington High School in April is back in custody for violating the conditions of his release.
The messages included threats of killings with guns and knives, and one contained a “murder list” with names of students and teachers. They led to three days of lockdowns at the high school and a one-day cancellation of classes districtwide.
Josiah Leach, 19, pleaded guilty in October and was required to participate in counseling as part of his release pending sentencing in February. However, he was recently kicked out of a program at the Howard Center for reportedly setting off stink bombs on three separate occasions, assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Drescher said at a hearing Friday.
Drescher told Judge Geoffrey Crawford that Leach’s actions caused some patients and staff to evacuate the building because of the smell, and the disruption “echoes” the conduct he pleaded guilty to earlier this year.
Leach’s attorney, Elizabeth Quinn, said there was nothing beyond circumstantial evidence to connect Leach to the stench, and Howard Center staff had recovered no device or material to even indicate that it was caused by a stink bomb — much less that her client was responsible.
Quinn said that Leach denies having set off any stink bombs, and while he recognizes that being kicked out of the Howard Center program violates his probation, there is another program willing to do an intake session with him so he can comply with the conditions of his release.
Drescher noted that Crawford had Leach jailed briefly in May for going online, which his probation also prohibited. At this point, Drescher said Leach is either “incapable or unwilling” to abide by the conditions of his release.
Drescher said it was troubling that Leach was denying the allegations made by Howard Center staff, given that he had previously lied to investigators in an effort to pin the murder threats on someone else.
Quinn denied Leach is unwilling to participate in counseling: “I don’t believe he did these acts that they are alleging here. I’ve seen a maturity in him myself, and certainly know how important his mental health treatment has been to him,” she said.
Getting kicked out of the Howard Center program led to home confinement, which has cost Leach his job in a local restaurant. That job was a “particular point of pride” for him, and Quinn questioned the idea that he would put that in jeopardy to set off stink bombs.
Crawford, however, said he believed there is clear and convincing evidence, the legal standard in the matter, that Leach’s discharge from the Howard Center was “caused by his own conduct.”
“You were the common element in each of these incidents,” Crawford told Leach, adding that the disruptive behavior was “uncomfortably similar to what happened at South Burlington High School.”
Crawford ordered that Leach be held pending his sentencing hearing next year. Court officers handcuffed Leach and escorted him out of the federal courthouse.
