Missouri Man Arrested In Connection With Jewish Center Threats

A jilted ex-boyfriend is behind at least eight of the scores of threats made against Jewish Community Centers nationwide, plus a bomb threat to New York’s Anti-Defamation League, in an effort to harass and vilify his former girlfriend, federal officials said Friday.

Juan Thompson was arrested in St. Louis and will appear in federal court in Missouri on Friday afternoon on a charge of cyberstalking, authorities said. There was no information on an attorney who could comment on his behalf.

CBS News senior investigative producer Pat Milton reports that Thompson will eventually be transferred to New York for prosecution in federal court.

New York Police Commissioner James O’Neill said Thompson, 31, was arrested by the FBI Friday.

“The defendant caused havoc, expending hundreds of hours of police and law enforcement resources to respond and investigate these threats,” O’Neill said in a statement. “We will continue to pursue those who pedal fear, making false claims about serious crimes.”

According to a federal complaint, Thompson dated the woman until last summer, when they broke up. The following day, her boss received an email purporting to be from a national news organization saying that she’d been pulled over for drunken driving.

The harassment got worse from there, federal officials said. The Anti-Defamation League received an email on Feb. 21 that said she was behind the bomb threats to JCCs and there’d be more the next day. On Feb. 22, it received a phoned-in bomb threat.

He also claimed she was responsible for placing a bomb in a Jewish center in Dallas, and he also emailed a JCC in San Diego saying she wanted to “kill as many Jews asap.”

Federal officials have been investigating 122 bomb threats called into nearly 100 JCC schools, child care and other similar facilities in three dozen states.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.