Man who made hoax threats to Jewish centers gets 5 years

Juan Thompson, the ex-journalist whose threats to Jewish centers set off fears of right-wing anti-Semitism in the wake of last year’s presidential election, was sentenced to five years in prison in Manhattan federal court Wednesday after an ex-girlfriend he cyberstalked said she still feared him.

“Men like Juan Thompson usually end up murdering their victims,” Francesca Rossi, a Brooklyn social worker, said in a riveting statement to U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel. “I feared for my life every day. I’m still not convinced that he still won’t try to kill me.

Thompson, 32, of St. Louis, pleaded guilty in June to cyberstalking Rossi for 9 months and making at least 12 hoax threats to Jewish community centers, some in her name, as part of a bizarre internet campaign to smear her as an anti-Semite, drunk, child pornographer and loose woman.

Until his arrest, the anonymous threats to centers from New York to San Diego — including one warning of a “Jewish Newtown,” a reference to the notorious school shooting — were among a series of incidents that led to a panic about anti-Semitism linked to Donald Trump’s election.

But Rossi, her voice breaking occasionally during a 15-minute statement, gave the first detailed narrative of the events leading up to the threats, urging Castel to impose a sentence that recognized a different link — between misogynistic violence against women and domestic terrorism.

“Let us believe women when they tell us of their abuse, because the men who inflict it only get worse,” said Rossi, dressed in a T-shirt with “Believe Women” on the front. “I urge you to not let there be a next time, don’t let Juan do this to another woman, another community, or the country.”

She said after a yearlong romance, Thompson began to unravel in mid-2016 when he was fired by the online news service The Intercept for allegedly fabricating stories, and she gradually realized he was secretly behind a harassment campaign that included revenge porn and a phony lawsuit claiming she had given a sexually transmitted disease to an ex-boyfriend

It soon escalated, she said, to almost daily texts and emails, trashing on multiple social media sites, and badgering 47 different friends, co-workers, supervisors and family — including her 92-year-old grandmother — with false claims that she was a racist alcoholic gunrunner, drug dealer and “slut.”

“What I was experiencing was intimate partner violence,” Rossi said. “I had no respite from his torment . . . Technology gave him an omnipresence over my life.”

She also criticized law enforcement, saying she complained 20 times about what was happening but was repeatedly told — even as police investigated phony tips he planted about her — that because Thompson used sophisticated internet cloaking techniques his harassment couldn’t be traced.

“Because he was using the internet as his method of violence, the police did not recognize the severity of harm,” she said.

Thompson, described by his lawyer as a child of poverty who earned a Vassar degree but suffered from alcoholism and mental health issues, apologized for the pain he caused both Rossi and the Jewish community, and said he had to better combat feelings of “misogyny and gender bias.”

“I screwed up royally,” he told the judge.

But Rossi told the judge she suspected that even in court, sitting a few feet away, Thompson was “taking pleasure” in hearing about her suffering. “Juan’s misogyny will still exist when he comes out,” she said. “I don’t trust he won’t do this again.”

Castel exceeded the range of 37 to 46 months in prison recommended by federal guidelines, saying the “maliciousness” behind Thompson’s 9-month campaign merited a harsher sentence.

“This required a lot of thought,” he said. “This was no mistake.”

Thompson told the judge he planned to appeal.