PORTLAND — A York man was sentenced to two years in prison for sending emails across state lines threatening to sexually assault people at gunpoint and identity theft. U. S. Attorney Halsey B. Frank pronounced the sentence, that also includes three years of supervised release, at U.S. District Court in Portland on Tuesday.

Austin Santoro, 23, of York, pleaded guilty to the crimes on Dec. 17.

According to court documents, on Jan. 30, 2018, three female Portsmouth Police Department employees received emails threatening to sexually assault them at gunpoint. The emails were purportedly sent by the police chief. After reviewing the email, it was discovered that the defendant used an email “spoofing” service located in the Czech Republic that made it appear the email had been sent by the police chief.

By using that service, “anyone can send an email to any address the sender chooses, making the email appear to come from whatever email address the sender provides,” according to the affidavit from Homeland Security Investigation Special Agent Derek Dunn. “When the email arrives, the ‘from’ line displays only the email address typed in by anonymous sender, making the recipient think it has actually come from the purported sender.”

A second email was sent to three Portsmouth officers on Feb. 18, 2018, of a bomb threat that also appear to come from the police chief but was actually sent through the spoofing service.

During the investigation, the spoofing service cooperated with Dunn and supplied information regarding the emails as well as information for 36 other emails suspected to be have been sent by the same person.

Ten of the email addresses were associated with the York Police Department, three were associated with Kittery Police Department, seven with Boston University, eight with York County Community College and one with the York public school system. The emails were sent between Dec. 21, 2017, and Jan. 30, 2018.

Of the additional emails sent, some were sexual and/or sexually threatening, some were racist, and others reported a bomb threat.

Computer forensic scientists were able to determine that the emails were sent from a specific type of Samsung cell phone.

Through the investigation law enforcement was able to determine the IP address of the emails and the time stamp that with the help of the web provider was used to find the account holder. This information was used to discover the cell number and device that sent the emails, which led to determining Austin Santoro as the guilty party.

According to the affidavit, it was discovered that Santoro had a personnel link with those he choose to have the emails appear to be sent from or to.

For the York college emails, they appeared to be sent by a particular faculty member, a faculty member that failed Santoro for a class he took from the professor in fall 2017. Boston University confirmed Santoro was a student there in March 2016 when he was arrested for assaulting his roommate. Emails appeared to be from a Kittery officer who was the same officer who arrested Santoro on July 17, 2017, for driving under the influence. Members of the York Police Department that were targeted responded to a 911 call at the Santoro residence on Oct. 5, 2017, after Austin Santoro apparently had a fight with his father and drove away in his mother’s SUV.

The investigation was conducted by U.S. Immigration and  Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.

— Associate Editor Dina Mendros can be contacted at 780-9014 or dmendros@gmail.com

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