Guilty pleas from SWAT prank callers

Alvarado family one of numerous victims

By Matt Smith/msmith@trcle.com

Dispatch for the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office received a call June 12, 2006, by a man claiming to be Jim Proulx of Alvarado. The caller said he was high on hallucinogenic drugs and had killed several family members with an AK-47 submachine gun. He threatened to kill remaining family members unless he was given $50,000 and safe passage out of the country.

Sheriff’s deputies and Cleburne police, including the police SWAT team, surrounded Proulx’s home about 1 a.m.

Proulx hadn’t shot anyone and had no hostages, officials soon discovered. Instead, he was sound asleep when officers arrived. It was a hoax. Proulx had been swatted.

“Swatting” refers to falsely reporting an emergency to police that results in a SWAT response to a location or making false reports to send other first responders to a physical address.

Proulx, who could not be reached for comment, became victim to a conspiracy U.S. Department of Justice officials said began around November 2002 in which hundreds of victims nationally and internationally were swatted. The false calls resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses, according to U.S. district court documents.

Swatters manipulate computer and phone equipment to make it appear the emergency calls are coming from their intended victim’s home.

Several defendants in the swatting conspiracy — none of whom are Johnson County residents — recently pleaded guilty in the Dallas U.S. district court. The defendants are Stuart Rosoff of Ohio, Chad Ward of New York and Jason Trowbridge and Angela Robberson of Houston. They were charged with conspiracy to use access devices to modify telecommunications instruments and to access protected telecommunication computers.

All await sentencing, and all face up to five years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine and payment of restitution, according to court documents.

U.S. Attorney Richard Roper of the Northern District of Texas and FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert E. Casey announced the guilty pleas, which were entered in October and November. Federal agencies, telecommunication providers and law enforcement officials from more than 40 state and local agencies participated in the investigation, both said.

“This type of criminal conduct represents a risk to public safety,” Casey said. “Thus far, injuries resulting from the criminal conduct have been limited to a few individuals, however, it is only a matter of time before serious bodily injury or death to individuals or law enforcement results from this type of conduct.”

Such crimes waste time and resources, Casey said, because officials responding to false reports are unavailable to respond to real emergencies.

“The public can be confident that the Department of Justice is working to ensure that those who commit these kinds of cutting-edge cyber crimes are held accountable,” Roper said.

Investigation into the conspiracy and other unindicted co-conspirators continues, Roper said. He urged anyone who knows of people who are swatting to contact their local, or the Dallas, FBI offices.

No other Johnson County residents have been swatted, Cleburne Police Chief Terry Powell said.

“These type of incidents can easily cause injury to innocent people,” Powell said. “We’re just glad that the people responsible are behind bars.”