Description: Boston, Massachusetts criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with making threatening communications to the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) in May 2021.

Sammy Sultan, 50, of Hayward, Calif., elected to plead guilty to one count of making threats in interstate commerce.

On or about May 28, 2021, Sultan made eight phone calls to TUPD, six of which included specific threats. During the calls, which collectively lasted about an hour, Sultan claimed to be hiding beneath a bed in a dorm room with a taser and pistol somewhere on campus. Sultan stated that he intended to use the taser if a woman returned to the dorm room and discovered him hiding. During the calls, Sultan played the sounds of a taser activating and a pistol racking – a pistol’s chamber being emptied and reloaded.

TUPD and local police carried out a room-by-room search of numerous buildings on Tufts University’s Medford campus but failed to locate the caller. A subsequent investigation of electronic evidence determined that Sultan had made the calls from California. A law enforcement officer familiar with Sultan’s voice from a prior investigation recognized Sultan’s voice on the TUPD call recordings.

Sultan previously pleaded guilty in December 2017 in the Northern District of California to making hundreds of obscene and harassing phone calls to law enforcement agencies and was sentenced to two years in prison.

Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy and Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division made the announcement. Valuable assistance in the investigation was provided by the Tufts University Police Department; Massachusetts State Police; Illinois State Police; and the Medford, Somerville, North Andover, Malden and Peabody Police Departments. Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy H. Kistner of the National Security Unit
prosecuted the case.

18 U.S.C. § 876 - Mailing Threatening Communications



(a) Whoever knowingly deposits in any post office or authorized depository for mail matter, to be sent or delivered by the Postal Service or knowingly causes to be delivered by the Postal Service according to the direction thereon, any communication, with or without a name or designating mark subscribed thereto, addressed to any other person, and containing any demand or request for ransom or reward for the release of any kidnapped person, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.

(b) Whoever, with intent to extort from any person any money or other thing of value, so deposits, or causes to be delivered, as aforesaid, any communication containing any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of the addressee or of another, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.

(c) Whoever knowingly so deposits or causes to be delivered as aforesaid, any communication with or without a name or designating mark subscribed thereto, addressed to any other person and containing any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of the addressee or of another, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.  If such a communication is addressed to a United States judge, a Federal law enforcement officer, or an official who is covered by section 1114, the individual shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both.

(d) Whoever, with intent to extort from any person any money or other thing of value, knowingly so deposits or causes to be delivered, as aforesaid, any communication, with or without a name or designating mark subscribed thereto, addressed to any other person and containing any threat to injure the property or reputation of the addressee or of another, or the reputation of a deceased person, or any threat to accuse the addressee or any other person of a crime, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.  If such a communication is addressed to a United States judge, a Federal law enforcement officer, or an official who is covered by section 1114, the individual shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both.

Outcome: Defendant was sentenced to 27 months in prison and three years of supervised release.

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Defendant's Experts:

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