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Bond set at $10K for YikYak threat suspect

Wednesday afternoon, Associate Circuit Judge Kimberly Shaw set bond at $10,000 cash for Hunter Michael Park, who is accused of posting racist threats to the social media service YikYak. The conditions of Park's release include GPS-monitored home detention at his parents's home, no access to the internet and psychological treatment.

Park's attorney, Jeff Hilbrenner, said his client was an unlikely flight risk given his strong support from family and friends. When prompted by Hilbrenner, over 50 people in the courtroom stood up in support of Park.

Hilbrenner also said his client suffered from cystic fibrosis and did not have access to all of his prescribed medications while in custody at the Boone County jail.

Assistant prosecuting attorney Brouck Jacobs opposed Park's release.

"With a telephone or computer he would be able to make another threat to cause sheer panic on the campus of the University of Missouri," Jacobs said. "So we do believe he is a danger to the community, whether or not he would follow through on any of the threats."

University of Missouri police officers arrested Park in the early morning hours of Nov. 11 at his dorm room on the campus of the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla. Park was one of three Missouri college students charged with posting online threats to YikYak amid protests addressing racism at the University of Missouri.

In a phone interview Tuesday assistant prosecuting attorney Jacobs said that even though the First Amendment protects outrageous and offensive speech, there are a few well-established limits.

"It's kind of like the old line about shouting fire in a crowded theater," Jacobs said, referring to the majority opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1919 landmark case Schenck v. United States. "You're endangering the lives of people by causing a panic. So that's the crime, and that's what we've got to prove happened."

The statute under which Park is charged defines a terrorist threat as violent statements intended to frighten ten or more people or cause the evacuation, quarantine or closure of any portion of a building, inhabitable structure, place of assembly or facility of transportation.

That's the question the jury would consider if Park's case goes to trial: What exactly did he intend when he allegedly posted to YikYak "I'm going to stand my ground tomorrow and shoot every black person I see"?

Jacobs said that criminal cases involving online threats are "only getting more common, unfortunately." He estimated one such case is added to Boone County Prosecutor's caseload every month.

"Sites like YikYak, people think that it's anonymous, and we are seeing lots of cases were people feel emboldened by the seeming anonymity of sites like that and they post content on there that is actually criminal because it threatens," Jacobs said. "It's important that people realize that if you post criminal content like a threat online it's not anonymous. The police can obtain a search warrant and figure out who it was that posted that and the identity would be revealed and they could be charged with a crime."

The next hearing in the case is set for 9 a.m. Dec. 23.