Man Who Wanted to Vilify Ex Arrested in JCC Case: Feds

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 on a charge of cyberstalking. There was no info on an attorney who could comment on his behalf, the AP reports. 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 she'd been pulled over for drunken driving.

The harassment got worse from there, federal officials say. 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. A claim that she was responsible for placing a bomb in a Jewish center in Dallas was also made; an email sent to a JCC in San Diego said she wanted to "kill as many Jews asap." Federal officials have been investigating 122 bomb threats called into nearly 100 JCC schools, child care sites, and other similar facilities in three dozen states. (More bomb threat stories.)