Benjamin Bolton Sentenced for Threats to SUNY Buffalo Staff

Benjamin Bolton, 32, of Glendale, Colorado, is going to prison for threatening to assault faculty, staff, and police at SUNY Buffalo State College. The former graduate student was sentenced to 30 months behind bars after pleading guilty to transmitting interstate communications containing threats to injure others.

The threats weren’t vague or veiled. Between June 2015 and August 5, 2015, Bolton made repeated phone calls—each laced with venom—directed at specific employees at the university. He named names. He targeted professors, administrators, and officers with the Buffalo State University Police Department, warning them of impending violence.

The hostility didn’t come out of nowhere. Bolton had been admitted to SUNY Buffalo State College as a graduate student in Fall 2013. But by April 2014, escalating disputes with faculty led to his suspension. What followed was a months-long campaign of intimidation, culminating in a federal case that exposed the dangers of weaponized communication.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Lamarque, who prosecuted the case, laid out the pattern: call after call, threat after threat, all traced back to Bolton. No physical attack occurred, but under federal law, the threat itself is the crime—especially when it crosses state lines and instills real fear in its targets.

The investigation was a joint effort between the Federal Bureau of Investigation, led by Special Agent-in-Charge Adam S. Cohen, and the Buffalo State University Police Department under Chief Peter Carey. Phone records, voice analysis, and witness testimony built a case that left no doubt about who was behind the threats.

U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo handed down the 30-month sentence, sending a clear message: threatening public employees—especially in an academic setting—won’t be tolerated. Bolton now begins his federal prison term, a consequence for turning grievances into weapons of fear.