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February 5, 2000
Former MVL student charged with e-mail threatsN. Mankato manadmits threats, butsaid he didn't mean to follow throughBy GUY PRIEL Journal Staff Writer ST. PETER -- An 18-year-old North Mankato man was charged in Nicollet County Court Thursday with two counts of making terroristic threats against students at Minnesota Valley Lutheran High School. Brandon David Lohmann, who is a former student at MVL, made his first appearance in court Thursday to face the charges. He is being held in the Nicollet County Jail on a $50,000 bail. His next appearance is scheduled for 9:15 a.m. on Feb. 15. The charges are considered felonies and can hold a maximum of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine for each count. Lohmann was arrested Jan. 31 after allegedly sending between 20 and 25 threatening e-mail messages to seniors at MVL via their personal e-mail accounts. The students who received the threats were members of the senior class, who were classmates of Lohmann prior to his expulsion in April 1999, MVL Principal Jon Schultz said. He did not discuss the reason for Lohmann's expulsion, citing Minnesota privacy laws. "The e-mail threats were related to the approaching class trip, scheduled for San Francisco, Calif," Schultz said. "There has been a lot of confusion and consternation connected to the threats." The trip is scheduled for March. School officials are conducting an investigation to determine if there is some type of connection between California and the threats, he said. "We will be holding a special meeting with parents on Saturday to provide information concerning this case," he said. "It will also be an opportunity to discuss options for the senior trip. We will listen to what they say." The school has no plans to cancel the senior trip, but Schultz feels there will be other options that should be considered and that there is the potential for change. "The man is in jail and there is a lot of relief over that," he said. "We are doing our best to provide counseling for students. We are always concerned with building safety after something like this. We can't take any of this too lightly in light of past incidences." According to the complaint filed in Nicollet County Court after the arrest, the Lohmann allegedly said in his e-mail messages he knew the students who had been cruel to him, that he had connections in California and that he was seeking revenge. Upon investigation by the North Mankato Police Department, the e-mails were traced to Lohmann's residence, 605 Wall Street, N. Mankato. He admitted to police that he had made the threats, but never had any intention of following through, the complaint states. A friend of Lohmann, Theodore Hunczak of St. James, stated that shortly after his expulsion from MVL, he had mentioned getting guns and explosives and shooting students and staff during chapel services, the complaint states. Nothing in the report indicates that anything other than the threatening e-mail was found at Lohmann's residence.
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