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Guilty Plea in Skidmore Threat Case

Release Date: January 24, 2008

By LEIGH HORNBECK, Staff writer
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Last updated: 1:43 p.m., Thursday, January 24, 2008

BALLSTON SPA -- A Massachusetts man could serve up to seven years in state prison after he admitted to making a terrorist threat toward Skidmore College.
Joseph Gaudrault, 43, pleaded guilty in Saratoga County Court today. He is scheduled to be sentenced March 24. Judge Jerry Scarano indicated he may give Gaudrault just four years, District Attorney James Murphy said.

Gaudrault called Skidmore, his alma mater, on May 11 and left a threat on the school's voice mail system. He said he would "appear on campus and take out a lot of people with a rifle."

Because Gaudrault was living in Beverly, Mass., at the time, Murphy applied to the governor of the commonwealth for extradition so Gaudrault could face charges in New York.

Gaudrault made the call just weeks after Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus. Making a terrorist threat became a felony offense after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"He admitted he called the college and threatened to commit a killing," Murphy said. "He did so with an intent to invoke fear in the college community."

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