Teen denies role in plot to attack school

BROCKTON -- One of the two teenagers accused of plotting a Columbine-style attack at Marshfield High School in the fall of 2004 told a judge yesterday he had no part in the plan.

Tobin Kerns, 18, said that his friend, Joseph Nee, 20, had hatched a plan to attack the school with two other students, Joseph Sullivan and Dan Farley. (Farley and Sullivan were granted immunity and testified earlier this week.) Kerns said he never took the idea seriously and never thought they would act on it.

Kerns is expected to take the stand again today at the George N. Covett Courthouse.

Kerns, who was 16 when he was arrested in September 2004, is being tried in juvenile court as a youthful offender, which means the proceedings are open to the public. Kerns faces a bench trial on charges of threats to use deadly weapons at school and conspiracy to commit murder. Earlier this week, Judge Louis D. Coffin dismissed a third charge of promotion of anarchy.

According to the prosecution, authorities found hand-drawn maps of the high school, computer files on bomb-building, and a shopping list of weapons and ammunition in the Kerns home. Kerns testified that Nee had drawn the maps while he was staying at the Kerns home in May 2004 and that Nee had been using their computer.

Nee was arrested a month after Kerns. He faces similar charges: promoting anarchy, conspiracy to commit murder, and threat to use deadly weapons. Nee will be tried separately. He faces a motions hearing on Dec. 12.

Bethany Lunn, Kerns's former girlfriend, testified Wednesday that she had considered approaching police when Kerns told her about a plan Nee allegedly crafted to ``shoot up" the school, but she doubted that Nee would do it and feared that police would not take their accusation seriously because Nee's father is Thomas J. Nee, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association.

Kerns also testified that he and Nee had gotten into a physical altercation about Lunn less than a week before his Sept. 17 arrest.

Nee, Farley, and Sullivan told police Kerns was planning an attack on the school, similar to one carried out with deadly results at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., in 1999.

Kerns said that he first heard Nee say that he wanted to ``blow up the school' in December 2003 and that the subject came up more frequently in following months.

Kerns admitted that he had written a shopping list of firearms, ammunition and explosives at one point, but said that he did so when he and other teens were egging Nee on during one of Nee's ``rants."

``I was egging him along . . . for entertainment purposes," said Kerns. ``I was not assisting him."

Kerns said he never believed that Nee would carry out the plot.

``I thought it was ridiculous," Kerns said. ``It did not appear he would come through with anything. It was a joke, at the time."

Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com.