November 1, 2023 - BOSTON – A California man has been sentenced for making threatening communications to the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) in May 2021.

Sammy Sultan, 50, of Hayward, Calif., was sentenced on Oct. 26, 2023 by U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin to 27 months in prison and three years of supervised release. In November 2022, Sultan pleaded guilty to one count of making threats in interstate commerce.

On or about May 28, 2021, Sultan made eight phone calls to TUPD, six of which included specific threats. During the calls, which collectively lasted about an hour, Sultan claimed to be hiding beneath a bed in a dorm room with a taser and pistol somewhere on campus. Sultan stated that he intended to use the taser if a woman returned to the dorm room and discovered him hiding. During the calls, Sultan played the sounds of a taser activating and a pistol racking – a pistol’s chamber being emptied and reloaded. 

TUPD and local police carried out a room-by-room search of numerous buildings on Tufts University’s Medford campus but failed to locate the caller. A subsequent investigation of electronic evidence determined that Sultan had made the calls from California. A law enforcement officer familiar with Sultan’s voice from a prior investigation recognized Sultan’s voice on the TUPD call recordings.

Sultan previously pleaded guilty in December 2017 in the Northern District of California to making hundreds of obscene and harassing phone calls to law enforcement agencies and was sentenced to two years in prison.

Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy and Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division made the announcement. Valuable assistance in the investigation was provided by the Tufts University Police Department; Massachusetts State Police; Illinois State Police; and the Medford, Somerville, North Andover, Malden and Peabody Police Departments. Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy H. Kistner of the National Security Unit prosecuted the case. 
Source: DOJ Release