Twenty-three-year-old Sydney Gort was back in court today for a bond hearing, after being arraigned on November 26 for two counts of a false report or threat of terrorism in the Packaging building at Michigan State University.
After sitting in jail for more than a week, Sydney Gort appeared alongside her attorney Ryan Berman. In court he referenced the pretrial services report.
“Normally they would recommend a personal recognizance bond,” Berman said. “That’s what I was prepared to argue for today.”
Berman said the initial bond set at 250,000 dollars was not appropriate for the allegations.
Meanwhile prosecutor Russel Church was very set on his recommendations.
“The threat that we’re dealing with, which is essentially ‘I will strike one of every 3 female that come into this building tomorrow,’” Church said.
That building is the school of packaging, where Church says in April Gort called 9-1-1 to report a bomb threat also on a bathroom stall in the same building.
“Interestingly, she had exams in that building on both of the days that those complaints were made,” Church said.
Judge Andrea Larkin was not accepting of the defense attorney’s argument that the threat wouldn’t have been a crime 10 years ago.
“Car jacking didn’t exist decades ago, nor did hijacking a plane, nor did terrorism threats,” Larkin said. “They all exist now and they’re all serious crimes.”
Judge Larkin set the bond at 100,000 dollars. If Gort does make bail, she can’t leave her apartment between 10 pm and 7 am.