BALTIMORE — Federal authorities have reduced a charge from a felony to a misdemeanor against a college student accused of hiding box cutters on four airplanes to expose weaknesses in security, court records show.
Nathaniel Heatwole, 20, of Damascus is scheduled for an initial appearance and arraignment April 23 in U.S. District Court in Baltimore before Magistrate Judge Paul Grimm. A plea is expected at the hearing, court records show.
Mr. Heatwole was released without bail in October to await trial on a charge of taking a dangerous weapon aboard an aircraft. Conviction of the charge carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.
But court records show prosecutors reduced the charge last month to entering an area of Baltimore-Washington International Airport on Sept. 14 in violation of security restrictions.
Mr. Heatwole faces a maximum penalty of up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine for bringing banned items into the passenger screening area.
Mr. Heatwole’s attorney, Charles Leeper, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Harvey Eisenberg, who is handling the case, declined to comment yesterday.
Mr. Heatwole told federal authorities that he hid box cutters, modeling clay made to look like plastic explosives, matches and bleach on Southwest Airlines flights in an act of “civil disobedience” to expose weaknesses in security.
Michael Greenberger, director of the University of Maryland Center for Health and Homeland Security, said he believed authorities reduced the charge to resolve “a complete embarrassment to the United States government.”
The Transportation Security Administration received a signed e-mail Sept. 15 from Mr. Heatwole saying he had “information regarding six security breaches” at BWI Airport and Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina between Feb. 7 and Sept. 14, an FBI affidavit said.
Mr. Heatwole told authorities that he left packages in rear lavatories on four of six planes on which he flew.
According to the affidavit, Mr. Heatwole’s e-mail “stated that he was aware his actions were against the law and that he was aware of the potential consequences for his actions, and that his actions were an ’act of civil disobedience with the aim of improving public safety for the air-traveling public.’”
Mr. Heatwole is a student at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C., a Quaker school that has drawn pacifists throughout its history.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.