May 2, 2007 By Josh Krysak 3 min read

A 19-year-old Uniontown man is facing multiple charges after he allegedly stole a Uniontown Area High School student’s identity to make racial threats against black students at the school. Magisterial District Judge Mark L. Blair charged Kevin Andrew Burd of 338 Elizabeth St. with terroristic threats, identity theft, recklessly endangering another person, harassment and disorderly conduct Tuesday, following a two-week investigation by state police.

Police allege Burd used the popular MySpace Internet Web site – a free site used for Internet chat and information sharing – to create a racially charged Web page purported to be authored by the 16-year-old student.

According to trooper Thomas B. Broadwater, police were contacted by Uniontown High School Principal Thomas Colebank on April 19 and alerted them to the situation.

Broadwater said that Burd created a MySpace page on April 7 pretending to be the 10th grade student at the high school. The student’s identity was not revealed.

He posted pictures taken from the boy’s legitimate MySpace page on the bogus page and then laced the Internet page with racial slurs and threats against black students, police said.

One specific post said, “I hate all the (racial slur.) I swear I’m gonna bring a gun to school someday and kill them all,” Broadwater said.

Broadwater said police contacted MySpace and eventually tracked down Burd by following the trail created by the Internet service provider’s address used to create the MySpace account.

Burd accessed the page 22 times from his home, according to police, over a 13-day period, ending April 16.

When questioned, Burd initially denied knowing about the page but then told police that another 10th grade student at Uniontown High School used his computer to make the bogus page, police said.

Police also investigated and interviewed the girl named by Burd, Broadwater said in his affidavit of probable cause, but no charges were filed against the teen.

According to state police Sgt. Dave Heckman and Broadwater, MySpace investigations are becoming more common at the Uniontown barracks, noting that a new investigation into child pornography being pedaled out of Fayette County through the Internet community is now underway.

“People need to realize that their fingerprints are all over the Web when they use the Internet and we have a very proficient computer crimes division,” Heckman said Tuesday. “Any time an allegation or threat is made, no matter how bogus, we are going to come down on it. These threats cause a lot of anxiety and they have to be taken seriously.”

Broadwater said while Internet crimes are difficult to police because some Web sites are not proactive in preventing identity theft, he is going to continue to follow leads and stop Online criminals.

“They create an account on MySpace or other sites and they copy and paste a person’s pictures and think they can get away with it,” Broadwater said. “They can’t get away with it.”

Uniontown Area School District Superintendent Dr. Charles Machesky said that high school staff, school police and the state police handled the unfortunate situation quickly and proficiently.

“The threats were horrible but we were very fortunate that once it was brought to our attention by a parent the situation was diffused and no students were ever in any danger,” Machesky said Tuesday night. “The former Uniontown graduate responsible was also trying to get the individual whose identity was compromised in trouble with the African American community but we were able to stop that from happening.”