Massachusetts v. D'Ambrosio [1]

The plaintiff, an 18-year old who aspires to be a rapper, posted lyrics on his Facebook page referencing the Boston Marathon bombings two weeks after the bombings occurred. D'Ambrosio also posted that the White House was a "federal house of horror." While his Facebook page has since been removed, in one line of the rap, D'Ambrosio wrote, "everyone you will see what I am going to do, kill people." D'Ambrosio also recorded a Youtube video [2] and sent text messages that referenced the content of this rap.

On May 1, 2013, D'Ambrosio did not attend school, and at least one student, who had seen the Facebook post, notified school officials, who then notified police. D'Ambrosio was arrested one week after the Facebook post and charged with Communicating a Terrorist Threat under Mass. Gen. Laws c. 269, section 14 [3], a felony charge that can bring up to 20 years in prison. According to Chief Solomon of the Methuen Police Department, D'Ambrosio did not make threats against particular individuals or the school in his rap. Judge Lynn Rooney of Lawrence District Court originally set D'Ambrosio's bail at $1,000,000 but this was subsequently revoked, and D'Ambrosio was held without bail.

On May 2, 2013, D'Ambrosio was arraigned in Lawrence District Court and, represented by his attorney Geoffrey DuBosque, plead not guilty on charges of making a bomb threat.

After D'Ambrosio's arrest, Fight for the Future [4] and the Center for Rights [5] posted a petition on their website entitled "Free Cameron D'Ambrosio!" The website detailed D'Ambrosio's arrest and argued for protection of D'Ambrosio's First Amendment privileges and freedom of speech on the internet. The petition received over 90,000 signatures.

On June 6, 2013, a grand jury refused to indict D'Ambrosio on a charge of making terrorist threats and Judge Rooney ordered that he be released on personal recognizance. On June 27, 2013, the charges against D'Ambrosio were officially dropped.