A 33-year-old Illinois woman has been sentenced for phoning in a fake bomb threat that shut down Lansing's main bus terminal, closed downtown streets, and forced the evacuation of more than 200 workers and passengers during the morning rush last year. Nefateria Denise Ferguson was ordered to serve three years of probation following four months of home confinement, and a federal judge also imposed a $350 fine at her sentencing in Grand Rapids.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Michigan issued a sentencing announcement, according to its announcement. The Detroit News reported that Ferguson was sentenced on Monday, September 21. Ferguson had pleaded guilty to conveying false information or a hoax after admitting she called the Capitol Area Transit Authority, according to The Detroit News. At 8:10 a.m. on April 22, 2025, she told a CATA dispatcher, “I just wanted to let you guys know it's a bomb at the bus station,” per court records released alongside the sentencing announcement.
That single sentence set off a full emergency response. Officials rerouted buses away from downtown, closed the surrounding streets, and evacuated more than 200 staff, drivers, and patrons from the CATA Transportation Center, per The Detroit News. Lansing police shut the area down for about an hour during the morning rush and searched it with a bomb-sniffing canine unit before clearing the scene.
A Prank Born From a Group Text
The threat traced back to a group text chat that included a CATA employee who wanted an excuse to leave work, according to The Detroit News. That employee had asked someone in the chat to call in a bomb threat on her behalf. Federal prosecutors said the employee was actually surprised when Ferguson went through with it, and CATA later terminated the employee once an FBI investigation uncovered the chat, per the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Michigan.
Ferguson did not stay quiet for long. She called CATA back roughly 20 minutes after the initial threat and said it had been a prank, disclosing to the employee who took her call that the whole thing was a hoax, The Detroit News reported. But when detectives caught up with her, she gave them a false name and denied placing the threat at all. It was only after FBI agents confronted her with phone records proving she made the call that Ferguson confessed the bomb threat was a prank.
Mitigating Factors Weighed at Sentencing
Ferguson's attorney, Sean Tilton of the federal public defender's office, said she accepted responsibility for her conduct, according to The Detroit News. Court filings described Ferguson as a single mother of three, including a child who is autistic, and noted she has diabetes, high blood pressure, and sleep apnea. She has also been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, per the same reporting.
The FBI and Lansing police stressed the danger such hoaxes pose to public safety. Jennifer Runyan, special agent in charge of the FBI's Detroit Field Office, said threats to bomb a public transit center are serious offenses that can cause fear, disrupt communities, and place the public and first responders at risk, The Detroit News reported. Lansing Police Chief Rob Backus said what may have been intended as a joke had serious consequences and disrupted public transportation across the city, per the same account. Timothy Verhey serves as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan, the office that prosecuted the case.
What Federal Hoax Law Allows
Ferguson was indicted in February on the charge of conveying false information or a hoax, an offense punishable by up to five years in prison, up to 20 years if someone is injured, and up to life in prison if the offense results in death, according to The Detroit News. Under 18 U.S.C. § 1038, federal prosecutors must prove a defendant acted with specific intent to convey false or misleading information under circumstances where the threat could reasonably be believed, according to The Federal Criminal Attorneys. The same statute requires judges to order offenders to reimburse eligible state or local governments and private organizations that provide fire or rescue service for the costs of their response, per Cron Israels & Stark.
The CATA Transportation Center at 420 S. Grand Avenue serves as the central downtown transit terminal for Lansing's regional bus network, according to the Capital Area Transportation Authority. CATA routes serve a range of facilities, and the agency provided over 9.6 million total rides in 2025, illustrating how much daily traffic runs through the very terminal Ferguson's call shut down. CATA employs more than 400 workers and also serves as a designated youth Safe Place facility.
Part of a Wider Pattern of Hoax Threats
Ferguson's case is not an isolated one in the region. Hoodline previously reported that a false bomb threat near an East Lansing Meijer store in February 2025 triggered evacuations and a search by the Michigan State Police Bomb Squad before the scene was cleared. In August 2024, two Michigan teenagers were charged after a prank bomb threat forced the evacuation of an Owosso Walmart and required another bomb squad inspection.
Other recent Michigan cases underscore how seriously authorities treat these calls. According to The Detroit News, a Plymouth man was arrested after allegedly making a bomb threat and carrying drugs during a festival in southwest Michigan in June, a man was charged in federal court in March over a false bomb threat that forced an American Airlines flight from New York to Chicago to make an emergency landing in Detroit, and a Detroit woman was sentenced in January to 18 months of probation for phoning in two fake bomb threats to Lake Shore High School.
