Bomb threat charges dismissed

Published 10:56 pm Monday, December 9, 2013

Charges were dismissed in the case of a 20-year-old Suffolk man who was accused of writing a bomb threat in the boys’ restroom at King’s Fork High School last school year.

Abdul Dshawn Dixon, who was a student at the school, walked out of the courtroom a happy man.

“I’m just glad it got dismissed,” he said in the hallway.

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He was charged with threatening to bomb or burn and communicating a threat in writing after the threat was found written on a wall above a urinal in the restroom on May 14.

The threat named another male student and said that student would blow up the school on the following day.

Prosecutor Susan Walton’s case hinged on videos that showed foot traffic into the restroom and in a nearby hallway on that day. One video showed a teacher at the school checking the bathroom at 12:34 p.m., and the teacher — Michael Hughes — testified the threat was not on the wall when he checked.

The video then shows Dixon entering the bathroom two minutes later. Another student, Malik McKinney, testified he entered the bathroom and saw the threat on the wall while Dixon was still there, washing his hands.

On the witness stand, however, Dixon denied having written the threat. The defense suggested McKinney could have written the threat, and he also denied doing so.

Walton entered into evidence images shared on Dixon’s Facebook page that depicted bombs and said he was a member of “The Bomb Squad.”

Dixon admitted the images had been on his page but said they were taken out of context. “Bomb Squad” was actually “Bomber Squad,” he said, and had been a reference to World War I airplanes.

Judge Rodham T. Delk said he did not find either of the two young men more credible than the other.

The defendant’s mother, Adrienne Dixon, said after the trial the “stupid stuff” on her son’s Facebook page had come back to bite him and admitted her son has smoked marijuana and gotten behind in school because of a number of suspensions.

“A lot of stuff got really out of context,” she said. “We’re just so grateful.”

The threat was among a string of about 15 threats that took place in a matter of weeks last spring at King’s Fork High and Middle schools and Lakeland High School. Other arrests made in the rash of threats included six juveniles.