A threatening voicemail left at a tiny Oneida County courthouse set off a bomb sweep and a felony arrest this week, after court employees arriving Wednesday morning discovered a message warning that someone planned to blow up the building. By Wednesday night, 50-year-old Gary L. Schermerhorn of Utica was behind bars at the Oneida County jail, held on $100,000 cash bail or a $250,000 bond.
State police troopers were called to Bridgewater Town Court at 8:21 a.m. Wednesday after staff found the recorded threat, according to state police spokesperson Jennifer Jiron, as reported by Syracuse.com. Jiron said the caller left the voicemail the previous evening, threatening to blow up the courthouse, which sits at 404 Route 8 inside Bridgewater's municipal building. The building was evacuated as a precaution while investigators worked to determine whether the threat was credible.
K-9 Team Clears the Building
The New York State Police Bomb Disposal Unit sent an explosives-detection dog to search the municipal building, and the sweep turned up no explosives or suspicious devices. Two weeks earlier, the New York State Police Bomb Disposal Unit and one canine unit from the Oneida County Sheriff's Office responded to a false-alarm explosive alert at an Air Force Research Laboratory and DFAS facility in Rome. Traffic was rerouted and traffic services were provided before the facility was cleared, per the Utica Phoenix.
Investigators identified Schermerhorn as the caller and located him at a residence in Utica, where he was arrested. The station's report notes police then charged him with making a terroristic threat, a felony, and second-degree aggravated harassment, a misdemeanor.
Felony Carries Up to Seven Years
Making a terroristic threat is classified as a Class D felony under New York Penal Law § 490.20, carrying a maximum sentence of up to seven years in prison upon conviction, according to the New York State Senate. Notably, the same statute specifies that it is no defense for a defendant to claim they lacked the intent or physical capability to actually carry out the threatened act — meaning prosecutors do not need to prove Schermerhorn had any real explosives or means to follow through. The misdemeanor aggravated harassment count, defined under Penal Law § 240.30, carries a lesser maximum penalty of up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
The $100,000 cash bail set in Schermerhorn's case traces back to a June 2025 ruling from the New York Court of Appeals, *People ex rel. Ellis v. Imperati*, which established that making a terroristic threat qualifies as a violent felony eligible for monetary bail under state law. That decision resolved earlier ambiguity in New York's bail reform framework over whether such threats could carry cash bail at all.
Arraigned Through County's Centralized Court
Arraigned Through County's Centralized Court Schermerhorn was arraigned through Oneida County's Centralized Arraignment Part, known as CAP Court.
The threat unfolded in Bridgewater, where the courthouse sits along Route 8. It remains unclear what, if any, connection Schermerhorn had to Bridgewater Town Court or whether he had a pending matter before it.
