Man Pleads Guilty To Making Threatening Calls To Tufts University

MEDFORD, MA — A California man has agreed to plead guilty in connection with making threatening calls to the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD), according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Sammy Sultan, 49, of Hayward, California, allegedly claimed to be hiding in a dorm room with a taser and pistols in May 2021. He was charged by an Information with and has agreed to plead guilty to one count of making threats in interstate commerce.

According to the charging documents, Sultan made eight phone calls to TUPD, six of which included specific threats. During the calls, which collectively lasted about an hour, Sultan allegedly claimed to have entered a dorm room somewhere on the Tufts University campus, to be hiding beneath a bed, and to possess a taser and pistols.

On several occasions, Sultan stated that he intended to use the taser if a woman returned to the dorm room and discovered him hiding beneath the bed. Sultan allegedly played the sounds of a taser activating and a pistol racking during the calls.

TUPD and local police carried out an hours-long, room-by-room search of numerous buildings on Tufts University’s Medford campus but failed to locate the caller. A subsequent investigation of electronic evidence determined that Sultan made the calls from California. An officer familiar with Sultan’s voice from a prior investigation recognized Sultan’s voice on the TUPD call recordings.

Sultan was arrested and charged by criminal complaint on March 31, 2022.

He previously pleaded guilty in December 2017 to making hundreds of obscene and harassing phone calls to law enforcement agencies, for which he was sentenced to two years in prison.

Sultan faces a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.