MIT student's airport case stands

Dismissal request denied for wearer of light-up device

MIT student Star Simpson hoped to see her single charge of possessing a hoax device dismissed yesterday, but Judge Paul Mahoney gave himself until May 23 to make a decision. (TED FITZGERALD/POOL)

An East Boston judge declined to dismiss a charge today against an MIT student who was arrested at gunpoint when she walked into Logan International Airport wearing a light-up sweatshirt that authorities believed was a bomb.

District Judge Paul Mahoney has until May 23 to decide whether to dismiss the case. If it goes to trial, the student, Star Simpson, as well as other students from MIT are expected to testify that she had been wearing the device to attract attention at a college career fair.

The device, made of a plastic circuit board decorated with green LED lights and wires leading to a 9-volt battery, was attached to the front of Simpson's black, hooded sweatshirt when she walked up to the information counter in Terminal C at 8 a.m. and asked about an incoming flight from Oakland, Calif., State Police said. She was also carrying Play-Doh, which can resemble certain plastic explosives.

Simpson, 19 at the time, had been at the airport to pick up her boyfriend.

Outside the terminal, police officers surrounded Simpson, aiming machine guns at her and ordering her to raise her hands.

She was charged with possession of a hoax device, which carries a 2 1/2-year jail sentence, said Jake Wark, a spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney's office.

Wark said it is too early to say what sentence prosecutors will seek in the case.

"We're still trying to get it to trial," he said. "We are ready to go to trial, and we have been for quite some time. Clearly we are pleased the case was not dismissed."

Simpson, who is from Lahaina, Hawaii, appeared briefly at the 9 a.m. court hearing for the judge's decision.

She did not speak to reporters and her lawyer, Thomas Dwyer Jr., said yesterday that she was not available for interviews.

When asked what she wore to the hearing, Dwyer said, "Nothing flashy."

Dwyer denied that the device could have been confused with an incendiary device and said Simpson had a First Amendment right to express herself by wearing it. He said yesterday that an airport clerk had asked Simpson to turn off the device's blinking lights while she was inside the terminal and that Simpson complied by unplugging its battery.

"There was no power source," Dwyer said. "If it could not have been an incendiary device at all, how could it be a hoax?"