Hoaxes

A federal grand jury indicted a Sacramento man Thursday on 13 charges related to a series of anthrax scares across the country that turned out to be hoaxes. Marc Keyser, 66, was indicted on 10 counts of hoax mailings and three counts of mailing threatening communications. He has yet to enter a plea and remains free on $25,000 bond. Keyser was arrested Oct. 29 after several newspapers, other media outlets, businesses and a congressman received threatening packages in the mail. Reached Thursday at his home, Keyser said he believes the nation has become lax about the threat of terrorism and said the mailings were "an act of conscience."

A federal judge in Los Angeles on Thursday tentatively threw out the conviction of a Missouri woman for her role in a cruel Internet hoax on a teenage girl who ended up committing suicide. The decision by U.S. District Judge George H. Wu, which will not become final until he files a written ruling, was a blow to prosecutors who had hoped to send the message that cyber-bullying is a crime. Wu had repeatedly delayed sentencing to consider a defense motion to dismiss the entire case. U.S. Atty.

A security camera recorded the man wearing dark sunglasses and a hooded sweat shirt as he walked by Boston's Symphony Hall on Feb. 9 and dropped a cardboard tube marked "Anthrax Beware" at the door. Emergency medical crews raced to the site, firefighters cordoned off the area, police halted traffic, and life came to an anxious halt until a hazmat team signaled the all-clear: The tube was empty.

A Missouri woman is accused of cyber-bullying for allegedly posting photos and personal information of a teenage girl on the "casual encounters" section of Craigslist after an Internet argument. Prosecutors said Elizabeth A. Thrasher put the 17-year-old's picture, e-mail address and cellphone number on the website in a posting that suggested the girl was seeking a sexual encounter. St. Charles County police said the victim was the daughter of Thrasher's ex-husband's girlfriend.

Mailings of a suspicious white powder to 10 Church of Scientology addresses prompted the evacuation of dozens of people and the closure of a major thoroughfare Wednesday as hazmat teams were called to examine the packages. The letters were sent via the Postal Service to Scientology properties in Hollywood, the San Fernando Valley, Santa Monica, Glendale and Tustin.

The soldier staggered, wounded and bloody, into an Apple Valley mini-mart last weekend claiming to be a victim, shot and robbed while on leave from Iraq. Now investigators say it was all a ploy: They believe that Army Pfc. Matthew Myers, 20, of Apple Valley arranged for a friend to shoot him so he could avoid returning to Iraq. Myers first called 911 about 9:30 p.m. Sunday from the AM/PM convenience store at 15333 Rancherias Road, said San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Arden Wiltshire.

The gripping memoir of "Margaret B. Jones" received critical raves. It turns out it should have been reviewed as fiction. The author of "Love and Consequences," a critically acclaimed autobiography about growing up among gangbangers in South Los Angeles, acknowledged Monday that she made up everything in her just-published book. "Jones" is actually Margaret Seltzer.

An article and related materials published on the Los Angeles Times website on March 17 have been removed from the site because they relied heavily on information that The Times no longer believes to be credible. The article, titled "An Attack on Tupac Shakur Launched a Hip-Hop War" and written by Times staff writer Chuck Philips, purported to relate "new" information about a 1994 assault on rap star Tupac Shakur, including a description of events contained in FBI reports.

The New York woman who sued Oscar De La Hoya -- seeking $25 million for slander and claiming she was pressured to recant the legitimacy of photos she allegedly took of the boxer in fishnet stockings, high heels and other women's garb -- has dismissed her claim. Facing a possible countersuit by De La Hoya, model and former stripper Milana Dravnel dismissed her case Friday after an expert assessed the photos as "doctored," De La Hoya's attorney said.

The estranged wife of a Fullerton high school teacher and her boyfriend documented in a series of text messages nearly every step of a plan to plant a shotgun and marijuana in the instructor's car, according to court documents released Monday. Gregory Abbott, 31, a teacher at Sunny Hills High School, was arrested last month when police, acting on a tip, searched his car in the school parking lot and found a shotgun, marijuana and prescription drugs.