Brecksville bomb plot suspect seeking to exclude threat

CLEVELAND - One of five suspects charged with plotting to bomb an Ohio highway bridge wants to exclude trial evidence that he threatened to bomb his seventh-grade principal.

Information about the alleged threat by Douglas Wright, 26, of Indianapolis, when he was 12 years old would prejudice the jury, his attorney, Anthony Vegh, told the judge in a court filing.

U.S. District Court Judge David Dowd told attorneys Thursday that he would take up the issue next month.

All five men have pleaded not guilty. They allegedly tried to detonate what turned out to be a dud bomb provided by an informant.

Brief details of the alleged school threat were included in a transcript of the FBI's interview of Wright. He told the FBI agent he never carried through on the threat and no bomb materials were found.

"Not even one single component of a pipe bomb or stuff," Wright told the agent.

Wright told the agent that he wound up in juvenile court over the threat.

An FBI spokeswoman said no other details on the threat were immediately available.

Earlier in the week, Vegh asked the judge to try Wright separately and have the trial outside northeast Ohio, where the men allegedly considered blowing up various high-profile targets. Vegh said the other defendants have fingered Wright as an instigator.

Authorities have called the men anarchists, and investigators say the group planted what turned out to be a dud bomb provided by an FBI undercover informant on a bridge over the Cuyahoga Valley National Park between Cleveland and Akron.