By Brooke Mallory, OAN Staff
Monday, August 12, 2024 5:18 p.m.
The 22-year-old former Cornell University student was detained last fall after making violent threats against Jews on campus following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.Numberwas sentenced Monday to 21 months in prison.
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Federal authorities in October charged Patrick Dye, 22, of suburban Rochester, New York, with anonymously threatening to shoot and stab Jews on Greek community forums, unsettling Jewish students at a time when war-related anti-Semitic accusations were at their peak.
In April, Dye pleaded guilty to using interstate communications to post threats to kill or harm someone.
Federal prosecutors announced that Judge Brenda Sannes sentenced him to 21 months in prison and three years of federal probation.
The judge said Dye “significantly disrupted campus activity” and committed an alarming hate crime, but also took into account Dye’s mental health issues, autism diagnosis and non-violent history.
He could have faced up to five years in prison.
Dai’s mother said she believes some of the medication he was taking to treat anxiety and depression may have led to the violent threats. Often, medicines prescribed to treat certain mental illnesses can further exacerbate negative symptoms in sufferers.
Meanwhile, Lisa Peebles, the public defender in the case, boldly asserted that Dye is in fact pro-Israel and that the posts were a misguided attempt to “rally support for the country,” but she did not explain why she believed this, nor did she provide any evidence that he supported Israel, the suit said. NBC News.
“He mistakenly believed that the posts would spark a ‘backlash’ on campus in response to what he perceived as anti-Israel media coverage and pro-Hamas sentiment,” Peebles wrote in court documents.
The Ivy League university in Ithaca, New York, suspended Dye, who was a junior at the time, after learning of his threatening behavior.
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