The Plymouth teenager who set off fireworks at Harvard Medical School on Halloween night was sentenced last week to three years of probation and ordered to pay about $28,500 in damages.
Logan Patterson, now 19, and his friend Dominick Cardoza, now 21, of Bourne, agreed to plead guilty in March to tossing a large firework into a locker in a school building and running away.
Patterson and Cardoza each pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to damage a building by means of fire and an explosive.
The explosion blew the door off the locker and sent debris down the hall, according to court documents. No one was injured in the blast. Cardoza, who videotaped the incident, was also sentenced to three years’ probation Oct. 1.
U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley rejected a request from the prosecutor for six months of home confinement to begin the probation.
“The defendant committed a serious offense, even if that offense was motivated by immaturity and revelry rather than more serious intentions to cause damage or fear,” Assistant U.S. Attorney David Holcomb wrote.
The judge instead ordered Patterson released into the custody of his parents, with whom he has lived since he was charged last year.
“Mr. Patterson has been fortunate to have a supportive, loving, caring family and has an otherwise normal relationship with his family, neighbors, and friends,” his attorney, Kevin Reddington, wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
“Logan has no medical concerns and has strong mental and emotional health. He acknowledges and appreciates the support that he has received from his friends, family and church,” he wrote.
Patterson has no issues with alcohol or drugs, his attorney wrote.
After his arrest last year, Patterson lost his job as an apprentice carpenter with a custom luxury Cape Cod home builder.
“It was his dream job,” his mother, Kelley Patterson, wrote in a letter to the judge. “I’ll never forget the maturity and accountability Logan demonstrated in response to losing his job. He said that he understood that this was the result of his actions and a consequence of his choices.”
Patterson found another job a month later as a laborer and later as a machine operator.
He has no prior criminal history.
“Logan has always been a very happy, positive, energetic, and hard-working person,” his mother wrote. “He routinely assists neighbors with shoveling, yard work, and chores. Throughout this process, Logan has shown deep remorse, growth and increased maturity.”
Patterson’s father, family friends, neighbors, and his employer also wrote letters of support.
The incident made headlines last year after surveillance cameras captured two suspects wearing face coverings and lighting what appeared to be a Roman candle in the school’s Goldenson Building, which houses a laboratory for the medical school’s department of neurobiology, according to the charging documents.
The two were identified by four Wentworth Institute of Technology students, according to the charging documents. The defendants had attended Halloween social activities at Wentworth, and the next morning, Patterson allegedly told one of the Wentworth students he and Cardoza had placed a cherry bomb in a locker.
Fred Thys can be reached at fred@plymouthindependent.org.