Arrest in threats on Jewish centers

St. Louis man accused of calls, emails nationwide to harass ex-girlfriend

An arrest was made in connection with several incidents in the string of recent threats to Jewish Community Centers and Anti-Defamation League offices across the nation, including in the Bay Area, officials said Friday.

Juan Thompson, a 31-year-old St. Louis resident, was charged with cyberstalking after authorities said he attempted to intimidate an ex-girlfriend by calling in threats to at least eight Jewish Community Centers, according to a federal complaint.

The FBI linked Thompson to threats against several Jewish institutions in New York City, a Jewish school in Michigan, and the Jewish Community Center in San Diego — to which he sent an email saying his former partner “hates Jewish people” and planted bombs “to kill as many Jews asap.”

“We are relieved and gratified that the FBI has made an arrest in these cases. We applaud law enforcement’s unwavering effort to resolve this matter,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the ADL. “We look forward to the quick resolution of the remaining open cases.”

The announcement of the arrest comes after the ADL office on Market Street in San Francisco was evacuated on Monday after it received a bomb threat similar to those made at other Jewish institutions across the country. A second threat was made by phone to the Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto on the same day. No bombs were found in either location and it remains under investigation whether Thompson is linked to those threats, as well as others in the Bay Area.

“We are certainly not going to cut corners. We are going to take (the threats) very seriously and pass that information on. Everybody wants to solve it,” said Sgt. Wayne Benitez with the Palo Alto Police Department.

A recording of the phoned-in threat to the JCC in Palo Alto was sent to the FBI, but Benitez added that the voice on the line may have been computer generated.

Thompson is a former reporter for the news website the Intercept and was fired in January 2016 for fabricating quotes in his stories and creating fake email accounts to impersonate people. He wrote articles on criminal justice and breaking news — most notably concocting sources in a story on Dylann Roof, the gunman convicted of killing nine people at a historic African American church in Charleston, S.C.

“We are horrified to learn this morning that Juan Thompson, a former employee of The Intercept, has been arrested in connection with bomb threats against the ADL and multiple Jewish Community Centers in addition to cyberstalking. These actions are heinous and should be fully investigated and prosecuted,” the Intercept said in a statement.

On Tuesday night, President Trump condemned the threats against Jewish Community Centers and the recent desecration of Jewish cemeteries during his address to a joint session of Congress, saying that while “we may be a nation divided on policies, we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all its forms.”

Thompson’s harassment began in July 2016, when his romantic relationship ended, according to the FBI. Since then, he sent defamatory emails and faxes to the victim’s employers, fabricated reports of criminal activity and made threats to at least eight Jewish Community Centers in the victim’s name, the complaint said.

He also made threats in his own name claiming that his victim was attempting to frame him.

A Twitter account believed to belong to Thompson showed that he tweeted at the FBI multiple times saying he was being harassed by his former partner.

On Feb. 27, he tweeted, “Another week, another round of threats against Jewish ppl. In the middle of the day, you know who’s at a JCC? Kids. KIDS.”

William Sweeney Jr., FBI assistant directorin-charge of the bureau’s Philadelphia field office, said in a statement, “Thompson’s alleged pattern of harassment not only involved the defamation of his female victim, but his threats intimidated an entire community. The FBI and our partners take these crimes seriously.”

Since January, there have been at least 100 incidents at 81 Jewish Community Centers and Jewish day schools in 33 states and two Canadian provinces, according to the JCC Association of North America. Besides the threats made Monday against the ADL office in San Francisco and the JCC in Palo Alto, others were called in on Jan. 18 to the JCCs in San Rafael and Foster City that prompted school evacuations.

A number of Jewish cemeteries have also been vandalized throughout the country, including in St. Louis, Philadelphia and Rochester, N.Y.

If convicted, Thompson faces five years in prison. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacob Warren is leading the prosecution, which is being handled by the Department of Justice’s Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit and the General Crimes Unit. Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani