A former University of St. Thomas student who said anxiety to meet his parents' high academic expectations motivated him to call in bomb threats on campus was sentenced to one year in federal prison Tuesday.
Raymond G. Persaud, then a student at the St. Paul-based Catholic school, reported explosives on campus on three occasions in 2019, resulting in classes being canceled and final exams postponed. Persaud pleaded guilty in Minnesota U.S. District Court last year to threatening to use explosives to damage or destroy buildings.
Federal Judge Eric C. Tostrud denied the defense's request for probation. Though Persaud planted no real bombs, Tostrud said, "the St. Thomas community didn't know it was a hoax," and the fact that Persaud called in multiple threats shows the crime was not impulsive. "Every call presented an opportunity to stop," he said.
But the judge also prescribed lower than the year and a half imprisonment federal sentencing guidelines call for and prosecutors requested, citing Persaud's virtually nonexistent criminal history, genuine remorse for his crimes and model citizenship under release since being charged.
"I've done a very bad thing and I'm ready to accept the consequence," Persaud, 22, of Blaine, told the court Tuesday. "The Ray Persaud who called in these threats is someone I don't recognize."
Persaud was charged with calling in bomb threats in April, August and September of 2019, the first resulting in closing of the entire campus, the others leading to the evacuation of several buildings. He used an app that made it harder to track his location. On one occasion he called four times in a morning, changing the location and number of bombs to create maximum confusion, according to court documents.
"Mr. Persaud caused great fear and panic among his fellow students, as well as St. Thomas faculty and staff," St. Thomas leadership said in a victim impact statement. "And he did so three times in six months. Classes were canceled, resources were diverted, law enforcement descended onto campus. We feared for the lives of our students and colleagues."
Persaud is a first-generation immigrant. In court records, his parents said they came to the United States "motivated by poverty and inspired by the promises of a new life." Persaud was the first in his family to attend college, and his strict parents "always expected perfection," the defense said in documents pleading for leniency.