Teens fined in bomb hoax

A bogus bomb threat that closed Nantucket Harbor and stranded dozens of tourists overnight in July will cost four teenagers a total of nearly $40,000, Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe has announced.

Daphne Bragg, 17, of Houston, Texas; Brett Williams, 17, of Hartford, Conn.; Brendan Reed, 17, of West Suffield, Conn.; and a 16-year-old juvenile from Nantucket, faced charges of making a false bomb threat after the episode.

Prosecutors said the teenagers phoned in the threat because they wanted to prolong their weekend stay on the island.

Under plea agreements reached yesterday and Monday, the teenagers also will be required to complete 400 hours of community service between them and to serve two years of probation.

The $40,000 burden will be split among the teenagers and will be paid to the Coast Guard, the town of Nantucket, and passengers who were forced to find overnight lodging when the threat shut down ferry service, O'Keefe said.

According to prosecutors, the teenagers called the Hy-Line Cruises ferry office from a pay phone about 8 p.m. on July 17 and warned that the ferry scheduled to depart from the island that night would explode.

More than 200 passengers were stranded on the island, Hy-Line officials said yesterday.

Many stayed in hotels or with friends, but some slept at a local school, which was opened as a temporary shelter.

''I think the punishment was appropriate," said Phil Scudder, Hy-Line's vice president of marketing.

''The district attorney made the punishment serious enough that people understand [the threat] was not just a prank," he said.

The 17-year-olds were charged as adults. Efforts to reach the defendants yesterday were unsuccessful.