Kean University graduate and activist Kayla McKelvey who, back in November of last year posted fake threats against black students on Twitter in order to attract more people to her cause, has been denied participation in a probation program.
Superior Court Judge William Daniel made that decision this past Thursday.
The program, “Pre-Trial Intervention” (PTI), is for first-time offenders. Upon completion, offenders can get charges against them expunged from their records.
Ms. McKelvey was once president of the school’s Pan African Student Union. When a mere five students showed up last November for a protest which she had led, she became “disheartened.”
As a result, she went to a college library where she created new Gmail and Twitter accounts, and used the latter to tweet out the phony threats. One of the messages said “i will kill any black person i see at kean university.”
McKelvey then “returned to the rally and spread word of the messages using a bullhorn,” prosecutors said.
She was charged with third-degree creating a false public alarm.
Daniel, reading a long decision that included the history of the case, said McKelvey had given a statement to investigators in which she admitted sending out the messages last November to bring attention to racism on campus.
“I went about it the wrong way,” Daniel quoted McKelvey as saying in her statement to investigators. The judge said McKelvey has submitted numerous and lengthy letters from people telling of her character.
However, Daniel said the Union County Prosecutor’s Office had recommended McKelvey’s application for PTI [Pre-Trial Intervention] be denied, and said the defendant had failed to prove that prosecutors engaged in a “gross use of discretion,” which is required by law to overturn that recommendation.
Union County Assistant Prosecutor David Schneider said the threats spread panic and fear on the campus of the university in Union Township.
PTI is a program for first-time offenders, and if offenders in the program successfully complete probation, the charges are dropped from their records.
Prosecutors say McKelvey’s actions resulted in $80,000 worth of “increased campus security” and “investigation of the threats.”
They’ve recommend she be offered a six-month jail sentence in return for pleading guilty to the false public alarm charge.
RELATED: Student who posted ‘I’m going to shoot every black person I can on campus’ … is black
Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter
Please join the conversation about our stories on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, MeWe, Rumble, Gab, Minds and Gettr.