11-Year-Old from Flagler Schools Threats Sentenced to Counseling, Treatment

The 11-year-old boy tied to a series of highly disruptive threats placed against multiple schools in Flagler County has been sentenced to a mental health treatment and counseling program. Judge Melissa Distler made the call on Thursday that he should be held in a detention center in Volusia County until he can be placed in such a program, which will continue as his conduct dictates. Noah Magee was named in July as the suspect in over 20 calls placed to Flagler County at the end of last school year. According to Sheriff Rick Staly, Magee frequently consumed violent material online like animal abuse, human beheading, and murder videos, contributing to a disturbing personality change. At such a young age he was even said to have coerced explicit photos from others and then used them to extort cryptocurrency. Once Magee is placed in his program, he will be counseled and given education designed to address the dark tendencies that led to his extreme actions. His response will determine how long he’s in this program, with an estimate of 12 to 18 months being given if all goes to plan. After that, he will be allowed to return home to his home state of Virginia, from which he was extradited to answer for his crimes in Flagler County. He will be able to use electronics and the internet only with supervision, and the court ordered that $46,234.33 should be paid in restitution to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office for the resources devoted to the fake school threats. The sentence follows a no contest plea from Magee earlier in November, with him having been charged with 46 criminal charges. He was given 15 felony counts of false bomb reports, 15 felony counts of unlawful usage of a two-way communication device, 15 misdemeanor counts of disrupting a school function, and one count of evidence tampering. “Hopefully, today’s sentencing and in-custody treatment sets this young man on the right path, and he gets the help he needs,” said Sheriff Rick Staly about the ruling. “This kid terrorized our schools and the community for days at the end of last school year. The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office spent 168 patrol hours responding to schools investigating his false threats. Our Homeland Security and Investigations Section, Cyber Crimes and Criminal Intelligence Unit, and Digital Forensics Unit spent another 755 hours investigating this case and cracking the technology he was using to track this kid down and bring him back to Flagler County to face justice for his actions. “Let this case be a warning to anyone who thinks they can hide behind a computer screen — if you break the law in Flagler County, we will find you and arrest you, no matter where you are or how old you are. Finally, I want to thank our entire team that was involved, from 9-1-1 operators to patrol, detectives, and our professional support team that were involved, as well as our partners at the federal and state level that helped solve and bring this case to a close. This was a team effort, and I thank them for a job well done. I also thank State Attorney Larizza and the prosecutors that prosecuted this case to a successful conclusion.”