FEDERAL COURT
Man charged in false report of terrorist bomb threat
When Matthew J. Koziol told police he overheard plans for a terrorist bombing at a Thursday at the Square concert in downtown Buffalo last month, more than a dozen officers, police dogs and federal agents swung into action.
The police spent hours searching Lafayette Square on June 26, hoping to prevent an attack that could have endangered hundreds — if not thousands — of rock music fans.
But the call to police was nothing but a hoax, according to federal prosecutors who charged Koziol on Thursday with using a telephone to convey a false bomb threat.
The 27-year-old Town of Holland man was remanded to jail pending a mental health evaluation after appearing Thursday afternoon before U. S. Magistrate Judge Hugh B. Scott.
Koziol, who identified himself as a professional rock musician, was arrested by agents from the FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force of Western New York.
According to Scott, Koziol also faces a felony charge of stalking in Yorktown, Va. Police there said he is accused of “multiple stalking offenses” aimed at a Yorktown woman between 2005 and November 2007.
Assistant U. S. Attorney Timothy
C. Lynch said Koziol called Buffalo police less than two hours before the June 26 concert featuring the Mike Doughty Duo was scheduled to begin. Lynch said Koziol told a police lieutenant that he had overheard three men outside a Lackawanna pizza shop discussing plans to bomb the concert.
Koziol later told the same story to an FBI agent, including details about the clothes the men allegedly wore and the car they allegedly sat in while discussing the alleged bombing plans.
“Due to the imminent nature of the threat,” officers and bomb-detection dogs from at least five police agencies searched and monitored the concert area for four hours, FBI Special Agent Andrew M. Abramowitz said in court papers.
No bomb was found, and several days later, task force agents learned that Koziol had made up his story. Agents said Koziol told them he was upset because he heard his former girlfriend was planning to attend the concert with another man.
The popular Thursday concerts often bring thousands of people into the downtown area, and the threat was taken seriously, police said.
Scott said he ordered a mental health evaluation for Koziol because of concerns raised by his past conduct — which includes “a string of orders of protection” — and a statement that he allegedly made recently. The judge did not specify what the statement was.
Under federal law, Koziol could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of the felony charge filed against him..
