August 27, 2010

A judge sentenced a former Faulkner University student to join the military and perform community service for a post he made on Facebook that led to a campus lockdown.

Zachary Lambert, 23, agreed to plead guilty to the misdemeanor charge of harassing communications for a message that made reference to a deadly campus attack at Virginia Tech in 2007.

Lambert originally was charged with making a terrorist threat, a felony, and placed in jail on $500,000 bond.

Montgomery County Circuit Judge Tracy McCooey handed down a suspended three-month sentence and two years of probation.

McCooey told Lambert that he must join the military as a condition of his probation.

"You are going into the military. That is not a choice," she said.

Lambert also must perform 50 hours of community service, talking to schoolchildren about the consequences of what they say online. McCooey said she would accompany him for the appearances.

Faulkner was locked down for about 45 minutes in December after someone alerted officials to the post, in which Lambert seemed to be promising to break "Cho's record." Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and injured 25 others in the campus shooting.

http://www.military.com/news/article/man-sentenced-to-join-military-after-threat.html?col=1186032310810