A Lackawanna County judge sentenced a Scranton Prep student to rehabilitation, restitution and community service for threatening on Twitter to blow up Mid Valley and Holy Cross high schools in February.
Judge Michael J. Barrasse accepted 18-year-old Torre Scrimalli's application to be entered into a court-sanctioned accelerated rehabilitative disposition program that will allow him to expunge the offense from his criminal record.
Before the judge made the ruling on Tuesday, Mr. Scrimalli already completed a regimen of community service on his own - including speaking before the Mid Valley student body about the incident, Deputy District Attorney Gene Riccardo said.
He also paid nearly $1,900 in restitution, including about $1,500 to the Mid Valley School District and the law enforcement departments that responded.
Mr. Scrimalli's social media post sparked the evacuation of 900 people from Mid Valley High School and postponed a basketball game between the two schools he mentioned in his tweet. Police dogs then searched both buildings the night of the tweet, and Mid Valley students had their bags searched on their way into school the next day.
Police charged him with one count of terroristic threats causing evacuation of public buildings.
The judge did not order any additional conditions because he felt Mr. Scrimalli satisfied the program's requirements, Mr. Riccardo said. He had no prior criminal record. But even though his record may be expunged, his choice that day will always follow him, Mr. Riccardo said.
"Google his name," he said. "It will always be up there ... record expunged or not."
"It was a foolish thing that he did," he said.
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