Prosecutors recommend 30 days for woman who called in bomb threat to Children's Hospital; say her remorse is 'genuine and heartfelt,' but she still needs to pay a price

Update: Sentencing rescheduled for July 18.

A western-Massachusetts woman whose transphobic bomb threat forced the lock down of Children's Hospital and part of the Longwood Medical Area has expressed sincere regret and participated in a "restorative justice" program but should still be imprisoned for 30 days and then spend six months in home confinement, in part as a message to other would be threat makers, a federal prosecutor recommended yesterday.

Catherine Leavy of Westfield is scheduled for sentencing on Friday. As part of the process, both a prosecutor from the US Attorney's office in Boston and her attorney have made sentencing recommendations for US District Court Judge Leo Sorokin. Sorokin granted a request from Leavy's attorney that details on her history be kept private because it contains specific medical and psychiatric information.

Leavy pleaded guilty in September to charges she called in what turned out to be a hoax bomb threat to Children's Hospital on Aug. 30, 2022, under the influence of online ranters falsely claiming the hospital was mutilating children.

In his recommendation, assistant US Attorney Jared Dolan first described what Leavy admitted to doing:

The defendant's short call to BCH established her (1) criminal conduct, (2) goal, and (3) motivation, all in a single sentence. By stating that there was a bomb on the way to the hospital, the defendant made a threat that was both immediate and significant to the patients and staff of the facility. By stating that the hospital should evacuate everybody, the defendant indicated that she intended to provoke a response and interrupt the care that was being provided at BCH. And by referring to the targets of her threat as "sickos," the defendant communicated that the call was directly related to the care being provided by BCH as reflected in news coverage. Instead of attempting to register disagreement with the (perceived) policy of a private medical institution through peaceful means, the defendant threatened to blow up the hospital. Her actions terrorized staff and traumatized children who should have been focused on healing from their injuries. She willfully interrupted the care that was being performed at the hospital to suit her own ends.

Dolan continued, however, that context is important and that Leavy suffers from "personal medical issues that diminish the defendant’s culpability," although he declined to specify them out of respect for her privacy. Also, he wrote, "the defendant’s acceptance of responsibility and participation in a restorative justice program is laudatory" and that if the only issue were protecting the public from this one person, he would not recommend any prison time.

But, he continued, the broader context of what was happening then and continues to happen is also important:

The sentence imposed must send a message to the community that making bomb threats is a serious crime and cannot be wiped away with an apology (no matter how heartfelt). The Court must also account for general deterrence in fashioning a sentence. Even if the defendant is a low risk for recidivism, the conduct she committed is all too likely to reoccur. ... A sentence that does not result in a term of imprisonment, in light of the aggravating facts of this criminal conduct, sends the wrong message to society by minimizing the personal risk in making anonymous threats as part of a public dialogue.

He noted that Matthew Lindner, a Texan who also expressed remorse about calling a doctor at Fenway Health who worked with transgender youth to threaten her with death got three months in prison after he was sentenced for making that call - one day after Leavy made hers.