A little late than never, but this story appeared last week (4/8/08) on Masslive.com.
NORTHAMPTON - A teenager accused of making explosive materials and blowing up a flag pleaded innocent to all charges today.
John E. Robison Jr., 17, of 23 Dartmouth St., South Hadley, was arraigned in Hampshire Superior Court this afternoon on three counts of malicious explosion and one count of willful placing of explosives near property. Robison was released on his own recognizance.
At the request of assistant Northwestern District Attorney Alice E. Perry, Judge Judd J. Carhart ruled that as a condition of Robison's release, he must not possess any chemicals, report to a probation officer by phone once a week and must live with his father, John Elder Robison of Amherst.
Robison's legal saga will resume on May 20, when an out-of-court pretrial conference has been scheduled. A pretrial hearing will then be held in court on June 26.
During the arraignment, Perry said Robison videotaped himself blowing up a flag using chemicals he mixed at the South Hadley home owned by his mother, Mary L. Robison. Perry also said the chemicals discovered there included some of the same ones used in the fatal London subway bombings in July 2005 and possessed by Richard Reid, the so-called "Shoe Bomber" who unsuccessfully tried to blow up an airliner in December 2001.
John Robison's lawyer, David P. Hoose of Springfield, said in court he was unaware of the accusation against his client of possessing such deadly materials.
"This is the first I've heard of anything," Hoose said, adding, "This kid doesn't have a malicious bone in his body."
After the arraignment, Hoose added that Robison did not blow up a flag, but declined to elaborate. "When the proof is done, you'll see it wasn't a flag at all," Hoose said.
State and federal authorities raided the South Hadley home on Feb. 15 and discovered John Robison's home laboratory. Officials from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Massachusetts Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit, and the state hazardous materials response team removed chemicals from the laboratory and exploded them at the town landfill.
A portion of Dartmouth Street was closed for three days as officials entered and exited the home. South Hadley Fire District 1 Fire Chief William J. Judd hopes to recover the $17,619 his department spent on the incident. Labor alone has been placed at $8,844.
In addition, Judd has said he has seen footage on the Internet site YouTube of the local teenager detonating explosives near high-tension wires, but the video was later pulled from the Web site.
The interesting thing about this story is the synergy swirling around this family. Let's review: John Robison Jr., son of author John Elder Robison, nephew of author Augusten Burroughs, who's new book "A Wolf at the Table: A Memoir of My Father" is perhaps the most compelling of his "stories" thus far. It seems the Robison boys are hard-wired for eccentricity and non-traditional exploits.
In the interest of fairness, I believe all the flag blowing-up business is nonsense and that David Hoose will brilliantly defend his client (my lady-friend and I called it!).
