Updated: Empty bomb threat stirs empty campus

A woman from Long Branch, N.J., was arrested last Saturday, June 7, hours after she called in a bomb threat from the University campus and two days after calling in a similar threat against Monmouth University, police said.

The woman, Geraldine M. Dametz, 46, called Long Branch police around 11 a.m Saturday and reported that she was in an academic building on the Princeton campus with a bomb, said Borough Police Chief Charles Davall.

Upon receiving the call, Long Branch officials began tracing her whereabouts and maintained phone contact throughout the afternoon, eventually locating her in a conference room in Wallace Hall, Davall said.

"When we found her she refused to come out peacefully," he added. "She was basically like 'Go away or I'll blow this place up.' "

Princeton Borough Police surrounded and evacuated the building around 1 p.m., said Regina Tan '00, an employee of Stokes Library in Wallace who witnessed the event.

Long Branch police arrived shortly thereafter and coaxed Dametz out of the building.

No bomb was found on the campus, Davall said.

Only three or four people were in Wallace when the threat was made, Davall said, and those who were had very little idea what was happening.

"All the police asked me was where the entrances to the library were," said Tan, who was studying in Stokes at the time. "Public Safety wouldn't answer my questions, so I didn't really know what was going on."

Dametz had claimed during the call earlier in the week that she had planted two bombs: one at Monmouth and another at Princeton, said Chief William McElrath of the Monmouth University Police. No bomb was found at Monmouth.

Both threats allegedly relate to Dametz's "personal disenchantment" with a Princeton employee with whom she worked at Monmouth, according to a Borough Police press release.

The employee was her former supervisor several years ago, Davall said. The Asbury Park Press reported that Dametz believed the person contributed to her being fired from Monmouth in 1996.

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After the Thursday call, police officials issued a warrant for Dametz's arrest, but they were unable to locate her until Saturday.

Dametz is currently being held at the Mercer County Detention Center, and she has been charged with burglary, terroristic threats and false public alarm, Davall said.

Because the country is in a national state of alert, Dametz is charged with second-degree crimes and could face significant jail time, he added.

These events are not Dametz's first run in with the law. She has received charges related to trespassing as well as to other threats made on the Monmouth campus, McElrath said.

Dametz is currently being held on $200,000 bail and will likely face a grand jury hearing within the next month, Davall said.

Despite the threats, Steven Healy, Princeton's director of Public Safety, said students on campus for the summer and members of the Princeton community have remained calm.

"We have only received two emails expressing concern over this," he said. "The event has been covered widely in the local media, but there is little we can do to reassure the community simply because there is no way we could stop people from walking into a building like Wallace that is open to the public."

Editor's Note: This breaking story was appended to the Reunions 2003 issue of The Daily Princetonian's online edition originally on June 9 and updated on June 13th.