Bakersfield Man Accused of Online Threats Against Indiana Schools Faces New Charges

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – A California man charged with making online threats to bomb two suburban Indianapolis high schools is facing new federal charges involving alleged sextortion and intimidation.

Twenty-eight-year-old Buster Hernandez of Bakersfield, California, was originally indicted in 2017 on 26 counts stemming from bomb threats that temporarily closed Plainfield and Danville high schools and a shopping center in 2015.

The Indianapolis Star reports that a newly filed superseding indictment lists 40 new charges, including child pornography, coercion and enticement of a minor, and threats to extort, kill, kidnap and injure.

The charges allege Hernandez coerced or threatened online hundreds of victims, mostly girls, to share sexually explicit photos, and threatened to injure their classmates, friends, family and others if they didn’t comply.

A message seeking comment was left Thursday for Hernandez’s public defenders.