The teenager who shut down Windham and Raymond schools for three days last year when he sent emails threatening a shooting rampage can avoid being a convicted felon if he stays out of trouble for the next two years, according to a plea agreement approved Thursday.
Justin Woodbury, now 17, pleaded guilty in juvenile court to two felony counts of terrorizing for forcing the evacuation of government buildings but was given a deferred disposition by District Court Judge Keith Powers. If Woodbury does not violate his conditions over the next two years, he can return to court and withdraw his plea, pleading guilty instead to two misdemeanor counts of terrorizing.
At that point, he would be on probation for a year. If convicted of new criminal conduct during probation, he could be sent back to the Long Creek Youth Development Center until he’s 21.
“He’s a smart kid. He did something stupid,” Woodbury’s attorney, Ned Chester, said after the hearing. “He had more skills than judgment.”
Woodbury had attended Windham schools through middle school but was a junior at the Baxter Academy for Technology and Science at the time of his arrest. He enrolled in the Portland charter school to help him further develop his computer skills.
Woodbury sent emails on Dec. 14 to two school administrators, prompting officials to shut down all eight schools in Regional School Unit 14. The shutdown kept 3,300 students out of class for three days and unsettled children and parents in the two towns.
In one email, he said he was “sick of being bullied” and that he was going to “bring a gun and show how they make me feel. Dead.”
In another, he said: “I am done being bullied by all of the kids. … I will be in at 10 a.m. sharp to bring all of my pain back to them.”
Woodbury hid his identity by creating a dummy email account that used an online identity based in the Czech Republic.
Assistant District Attorney Michelle McCulloch said Thursday that multiple psychological evaluations conducted on Woodbury concluded that he is not a threat to the public. The deferred disposition followed by probation means that Woodbury will be under court-imposed supervision for the next three years.
Woodbury stood alongside Chester in court, almost a year after the emailed threats. Dressed in a blue-and-white striped shirt, dark pants and wearing a black wristwatch, Woodbury now stands taller than his attorney. His mother, Tina Woodbury, told the court her son has matured over the past year. He interacts with the family, works with his father doing construction and spends more time outdoors.
“He realizes he’s caused a lot of difficulty for the whole family,” she said. “He’s growing up.”
Woodbury has been living at home in Windham for the past five months. He has only been allowed to use computers under direct supervision and has been prohibited from using any device that can access the Internet. He spent six and a half months at the youth detention facility, a factor in why Powers said he was accepting the plea agreement.
“Basically, you’re being given time to prove yourself,” Powers told Woodbury. “Stay out of trouble, do something productive, learn from your mistakes.”
Powers said the two-year deferred disposition is the longest he’s seen in juvenile court.
Woodbury still has two years of school before he can graduate and will enroll in Maine Connections Academy, an online charter school.
Woodbury will be allowed to use computers again, but will have to give his juvenile community corrections officer access to all his passwords.
The agreement also requires Woodbury to participate in a restorative justice program that will require him to meet with members of law enforcement, the school community and the community at large so he can hear how his actions affected other people and so they can gauge his contrition.
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