Man arrested for stalking Bush '06

A Massachusetts man was arrested on campus last week for allegedly stalking presidential niece Lauren Bush '06, authorities said.

Lucas Schloming, a 31-year-old Cambridge resident and graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was arrested May 6 on federal stalking charges, Public Safety (DPS) Deputy Director of Operations Charles Davall said Saturday evening.

Schloming allegedly sent several "threatening emails" to Bush and was later seen "acting suspiciously" and arrested at 58 Prospect Ave., formerly the Elm eating club, Davall said.

In late April, Borough police were alerted that Bush was receiving "emails of a harassing nature" from Schloming, Lt. Dennis McManimon of the Borough police told the Trenton Times. Davall declined to elaborate on the content of the messages.

Borough police contacted law enforcement officials in Cambridge, Mass. where Schloming, an economics major from the MIT Class of 1999, lives with his parents, McManimon told the Times. He was unavailable for further comment Saturday night.

Cambridge police sent officers to interview Schloming at his home, where they issued a cease-and-desist order and secured a promise from Schloming that he would stop sending the emails, McManimon said to the Times.

On May 6, however, Cambridge police contacted Borough officials after Schloming's mother reported that Schloming had bought a one-way plane ticket from Boston to Newark the night before, according to the Times.

Schloming's mother, reached at her home Saturday evening, declined to comment, and Cambridge police were unavailable to comment over the weekend.

On the morning of May 6, DPS received a call from the U.S. Secret Service informing them that Schloming "had left Massachusetts and [was] possibly headed to Princeton," Davall said.

DPS, Borough police and Secret Service agents were in a meeting later the same day about the development when the call about a suspicious man at 58 Prospect was received from a University staff member.

DPS cruisers responded to the call and were confronting Schloming when Borough police officials arrived. "We knew he was the person of interest," Davall said.

Schloming told law enforcement officials on the scene that he "wanted to see the student" and was immediately arrested on a state-level charge of harassment, McManimon told the Times.

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Schloming was subsequently interviewed by police detectives and a special agent from the Secret Service, according to a report from the Borough police.

"[It] was determined that the accused would be charged with violations of federal statutes based on information received during the investigation," the report said.

Borough police and DPS did not report why exactly Schloming was at 58 Prospect. The building, however, is home to the anthropology department — in which Bush is majoring.

Though her campus address is not available in the University's web directory, prior newspaper reports have indicated her membership in the anthropology department.

Schloming was eventually released from Borough custody and turned over to agents from the Secret Service, who transported him to the Monmouth County Detention Center, according to the report. At that time, state-level charges were "voided."

Secret Service officials in Washington did not return a call seeking comment over the weekend.

Though Bush was not receiving protection from the Secret Service at the time of the Schloming incident, she has been assigned a protective detail in the past, Davall said, and thus the agency "took a special interest in the case."

A suitemate of Schloming's at MIT, Venkatesh Satish, described the news of Schloming's arrest as "very surprising."

"Lucas was very polite when he talked to me," Satish said. "He's not the sort of person you would see saying anything offensive to anyone — not that sort of a person, a kind person."

At the same time, Satish described Schloming as a "private person" and "inward — even by MIT standards."

Satish could not recall Schloming saying anything about Bush, her family or the Republican Party, though he noted he had not been in touch with Schloming in years.

Schloming worked at the Federal Reserve for some time and has since left the job, Satish said. Schloming currently lists the North Charles Institute, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation clinic in Cambridge, as his employer on MIT's alumni Web site.

"I know his mother, stayed over at their place and wouldn't have the slightest clue why he would do something like that," Satish added.

Davall, who served as Borough police chief before taking up his position at the University this year, said he could not recall any prior threats made against Bush while she has been at Princeton.

This is not the first time, however, that Bush — who has modeled for Tommy Hilfiger and serves as an honorary spokesperson for the United Nations World Food Programme — has been confronted with issues regarding her safety.

In February 2003, in the lead-up to the war in Iraq, the Secret Service advised her to cancel her plans to spend the summer in London, according to Britain's Guardian newspaper.

There were no publicly reported threats to Bush's safety, however, when she spent the fall semester abroad in Australia at the University of Sydney.

— Includes an update on Sunday, May 15 from Princetonian Staff Writer Viola Huang.