Jury convicts man for mailing bombs in act of revenge on officers

An Oakland man was found guilty earlier this week of sending bombs through the mail to take revenge on a corrections officer and a police officer, federal prosecutors said.

Ross Laverty, 59, sent a bomb to a person in East Palo Alto who had the same name as a corrections officer who strip-searched Laverty when he was in San Mateo County jail in 2014.

Laverty also sent a bomb to an Alameda police officer who was involved in the probation search of Laverty’s home and his arrest in 2013.

“In addition to his intended victims, Laverty put others, including postal workers and mail carriers, in grave danger,” U.S. Attorney David Anderson said in a statement.

Laverty mailed a bomb to the East Palo Alto address on or about Oct. 9, 2017, according to evidence established at the one-week trial, prosecutors said. The victim decided on Oct. 19 to carry it into the backyard of his home. He opened it and it exploded, according to prosecutors.

The explosion injured the victim and blasted a hole through a fence and a wooden object, prosecutors said.

The following month, Laverty mailed an identical bomb to a home on Bay Farm Island in Alameda where the wife of the police officer opened it and it exploded, according to evidence at the trial, prosecutors said.

A federal grand jury on May 21 of last year handed down an indictment that charged Laverty with two counts of mailing an explosive device that was intended to kill or injure, two counts related to possessing an unregistered gun and two other counts related to using an explosive.

Laverty was convicted Tuesday and faces a mandatory sentence of at least 20 years in prison, fines, supervised release and restitution.

Laverty’s attorney Erik Babcock did not return a call or email requesting comment on the conviction.