Grady Judd tells teens accused of making bomb threat to high school principal it’s not ‘harmless pranks’
HAINES CITY, Fla. - Two 18-year-olds are accused of making bomb threats to the principal of Ridge Community High School in Haines City.
What we know:
According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, the Ridge Community High School principal said she received three phone calls from an unknown male around 8:40 a.m. on Monday.
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She said she heard nothing on the first call. On the second call she heard, "I have a bomb," and the third call she heard, "It was a joke."
Ethan Bork and Jaimelias Rivera-Rodriguez mugshots courtesy of the Polk County Sheriff's Office.
Deputies determined that the phone number used to make the calls belonged to 18-year-old Jaimelias Rivera-Rodriguez.
When deputies contacted Rivera-Rodriguez, they said he admitted to making the calls.
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According to PCSO, he told the deputy that his friend, 18-year-old Ethan Bork gave him the principal's phone number and told him to call it and say that he had a bomb.
What we don't know:
Deputies said that Bork told them that he didn't know why he gave Rivera-Rodriguez the principal's phone number, nor why he told him to say that he had a bomb.
Dig deeper:
Bork is a student at Ridge Community High School, and Rivera-Rodriguez attended the school last year.
Both suspects were arrested and charged with false report of a bomb, conspiracy to commit offense with destructive device, use of a 2-way communication device to commit felony and making harassing phone calls.
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What they're saying:
"Regardless that there was no bomb, these type of calls are never just a joke," explained Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. "They are not harmless pranks. They are stupid actions that have consequences; they are crimes, and we will find the people who make calls like this and put them in jail, just like we did with these two."
The Source: This story was written with information provided by the Polk County Sheriff's Office.
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