LA man gets three years for phony bomb threats, including call from Modesto

MODESTO -- A 60-year-old Los Angeles man was sentenced Wednesday to three years and five months in federal prison for making phony threats about bombs in the mail, including calling in one of the threats from a Modesto bus station.

Stephen Isoczky's sentence includes three years of supervised release after he gets out of prison, the U.S. attorney's office in Sacramento reported.

Isoczky also was ordered to pay $6,890 in restitution to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service for the costs of dealing with the bomb threats. Postal inspectors and other law enforcement officials spent more than 200 hours X-raying and manually screening all mail going to the claimed target ZIP codes and specific addresses.

Federal prosecutors said Isoczky on Sept. 2 called postal inspectors and claimed to be a concerned citizen alerting authorities of impending letter bombs. Isoczky told them the bombs were going to be delivered shortly to a Rocklin home in Placer County.

A filed affidavit indicates that Isoczky made the September call from the Greyhound bus station in downtown Modesto's transit center. The prosecutors said law enforcement officials obtained security camera video, in which Isoczky is seen making the call from a pay phone.

On Nov. 1, Isoczky called postal inspectors again, claiming to be a concerned citizen alerting authorities of a pending letter bomb that was sent to another Placer County home in Auburn, according to prosecutors.

Investigators traced Isoczky's second bomb threat to a pay phone in Tracy near a motel where he was staying. Prosecutors said Isoczky repeatedly lied to law enforcement officers about his involvement and provided false information about not knowing the intended victims.

At the time, Isoczky was a federal fugitive. He was convicted in 2005 of federal counterfeiting offenses. Isoczky served his sentence and was released in June 2008, but had failed to contact his assigned probation officer since July 7, 2008.

Federal authorities credited Modesto and Tracy police departments with assisting in the investigation.

Bee staff writer Rosalio Ahumada can be reached at rahumada@modbee.com or (209) 578-2394.