Lima judge finds probable cause in teen’s bomb threat case

LIMA — A judge ruled Wednesday there is enough evidence to believe a 17-year-old boy called in a bomb threat to Lima Senior High School last month.Judge Glenn Derryberry of Allen County Juvenile Court also set May 23 for a hearing for Paul Minor Jr. to determine if the teen could respond favorably to treatment as a child. Prosecutors are seeking to try him as an adult. Finding probable cause was the first hurdle for prosecutors seeking to move the case to adult court.Minor is charged with inducing panic, a second-degree felony, in a March 6 bomb threat called into Lima Senior High School that forced the evacuation and search of the school during Election Day. He also is charged with vandalism, a fifth-degree felony, because officials said he removed and destroyed an ankle bracelet assigned out of another court case and used to monitor his whereabouts. If tried as a juvenile, Minor faces imprisonment until his 21st birthday. If tried as an adult, he faces up to nine years in prison.Assistant Allen County Prosecutor Chris Steffan said Minor admitted to making the call at 8:44 a.m. The school was placed on lockdown and then evacuated.“He said his intention was to evacuate the school,” Steffan said. Minor told investigators he never had any intentions of blowing up the school, she said.Minor’s attorney, Mike Dugan, said his client has some mental health problems for which he had been treated. In January, he was released from a prison for children where he served a sentence on another case. He was given one month of medicine but had no other ways to get the medicine he was prescribed to treat his mental health issues, Dugan said.“He had stopped taking those medications approximately a month before this happened,” Dugan said.Dugan said Minor called in the bomb threat to show off to other people.“He thought it would be a benefit for students that they would get an hour break from school,” Dugan said.Minor never thought through everything else that would take place including police officers and others searching the school, he said.“He accepts responsibility for those actions and he is sorry for the problems that he caused,” Dugan said. “He can’t take back what he did. It’s already done.”Minor also had no idea it was Election Day when he made the bomb threat, Dugan said. Three other bomb threats were made to Lima City Schools in about a one-month period. Amanda Hunt is facing charges in the other three and is expected to be indicted on various charges related to that later this month. You can comment on this story at www.limaohio.com.