flomoklown.jpg
"Flomo Klown" as depicted on Facebook
(Flomo Klown via Facebook.com)
Law enforcement has made at least nine arrests across Alabama in a little more than a week involving threats by people identifying themselves as clowns.
But what do you charge a threatening "clown"?
Most prosecutors have chosen to charge the "clowns" with making terroristic threats.
Seven, including two adults and five juveniles, face felony charges of making a terrorist threat. One juvenile faces a child in need of supervision charge. And the other, also a juvenile, faces a misdemeanor harassing communications charge from an incident in Rainbow City.
"We wanted to make an example and crack down on clown-related activity in our city," said Rainbow City Police Chief Jonathon Horton.
Many other police departments and sheriff's offices around the state have investigated complaints of clowns making threats on social media or jumping out an scaring someone. But investigations have either not identified suspects or are being chalked up to copycat pranks from incidents involving clowns reportedly seen in woods in North Carolina and South Caroline several weeks ago.
In the Rainbow City case, a 14-year-old juvenile was charged with misdemeanor harassing communications following a social media post that hinted at a visit to Rainbow Middle School by a clown. Police tracked down the juvenile within one and a half hours, Horton said.
Horton said Thursday that the juvenile, who was a student in another neighboring school system, wasn't charged with making a terrorist threat because the social media post didn't really interrupt school. There was no soft- or hard-lockdown of the school, he said.
Rainbow City Police tried to make a terrorist threat charge from the incident but it didn't quite meet the standard for that, Horton said. But they wanted to charge the juvenile with something so they went with the misdemeanor charge to make a point, he said.
Horton said the harassing communication charge is being added to other unrelated charges the juvenile was already facing.
Also among the arrests statewide were two in Calhoun County. One is a 17-year-old male from Alexandria identified on social media as "Koko the Klown" who was charged with "child in need of supervision." The other one is a 16-year-old juvenile from Pleasant Valley charged with making a terroristic threat related to threats made by "Billy the Klown" to "shoot up" Saks Middle School.
Randy Moeller, assistant district attorney for Calhoun and Cleburne Counties, would not talk about the two cases or even confirm the existence of the cases.
But Moeller said that certain elements be met before someone can be charged with making a terrorist threat. You have to intentionally or recklessly terrorize another person, cause the disruption of school activities, or cause the evacuation of a building, place of assembly, or facility of public transportation, according to the law.
"We've had a disruption of school activities for sure," Moeller said of the reports around the area.
Adults could face Class C felony charges for a terroristic threat if a crime of violence is threatened, Moeller said. "Juvenile courts have a wide leeway on how to deal with juvenile offenders," he said.
If you think it's a prank and you terrorize someone it could be considered reckless, even if you think it's just a harmless prank, Moeller said.
In Escambia County the sheriff's department arrested a 22-year-old woman and two juveniles in connection with a 'Flomo Klown' incident Sept. 15.
Makayla Smith, of Flomaton, was arrested and is being held on $200,000 bond on a charge of making a terroristic threat against a specific student at a local school. Two juveniles also face terroristic threat charges.
The charge is related to information the Flomaton Police Department received that was believed to be credible threats through a Facebook post regarding students at Flomaton High School. The school was put on lock down for several hours as 30 law enforcement officials made a sweep of the campus looking for any possible threats.
After an investigation the social media account was identified as "FLOMO KLOWN" and "Shoota Cllown."
Mike Lambert, Chief Deputy of the Escambia County Sheriff's Department, said Friday that other terroristic threat charges could be added against Smith and the two juveniles if the investigation uncovers more victims.
Lambert said that in his opinion the quick arrests of Smith and the two juveniles is a reason why "clown" reports have gone down.
The original complaint was made to the Flomaton Police Department at 7 a.m. on Sept. 15, Lambert said. The Facebook post included a statement directed to a specific student that stated "I'll just kill you at school," he said.
Facebook, at the request of Escambia County law enforcement took the Facebook account for FLOMO KLOWN at 2:30 p.m. that afternoon, Lambert said. But within three hours it had been created again and re-appeared on Facebook, he said.
Facebook refused to take the second one down because it did not meet their criteria for removal, such as not including threats, Lambert said.
Time restraints with identifying the owner of the original Facebook page through the different media carriers frustrated investigators, Lambertsaid. But Smith and the two juveniles had been identified and arrested by midday Friday.
Not Charged
Two juveniles also were identified in Troy related to a social media "clown" threat. But ultimately the two were not charged, according to troymessenger.com.
The juveniles posted a Facebook video Sept. 18 under the account of "ClappyAndslappy DaClown." The two wore clown costumes and masks, wielded a knife and talked for nearly five minutes about "coming for you in Troy, Alabama.," according to the Troy Messenger story.
Bruce Matthews, with the Pike County District Attorney's office, explained to the Troy Messenger why no charges were filed against the two juveniles.
"The criminal law is very specific on the elements of the charge. In order for it to be a terrorist threat, the threat has to be made to a school, a building or some functioning location that would disrupt services," Matthews told the Troy Messenger. "To be a threat against anybody, it has to be a threat against somebody in particular. I had a discussion with the chief and there was no discernable threat to any individual.
"Everything appears that it was a misguided prank with very, very bad timing. It was a horrendously erroneous prank," Matthews told the Troy Messenger.