The man accused of threatening to burn down the University of New Orleans campus last December had the criminal charge against him dropped on his scheduled trial date in September, and now he says he wants to come back to school. Joseph Wade Russo, 42, says he is just three courses short of a kinesiology and biomechanics degree and wants to graduate from LSU New Orleans, even though a stay-away order against him remains in effect.
Charge Dropped on Trial Day
The Orleans Parish district attorney Jason Williams’ office dismissed the criminal charge against Russo on his scheduled trial date of Sept. 25, according to NOLA.com. Russo had been charged with terrorizing LSU New Orleans, a felony that carries a possible prison sentence of five to 15 years, and he had waived his right to a jury trial, instead choosing District Judge Nandi Campbell to decide his case. Days before the dismissal, he filed a motion to quash the case, which he said he drafted with the help of an AI chatbot program.
Russo has also alleged that an NOPD investigator gave misleading testimony at a hearing held in July, though that claim has not been independently verified. Despite the dropped charge, the stay-away order barring him from campus remains in effect, the outlet reports.
December Threat Triggered Evacuation, School Lockdowns
The case traces back to Dec. 12, 2025, when Russo allegedly called the LSU New Orleans admissions office around 10:45 a.m. and threatened to burn down buildings on campus, according to wwno.org. He was accused of saying, “If it was up to me, the damn school would burn down.” The university sent out an evacuation alert via email just before 11 a.m. that day, and the threat triggered lockdowns at two nearby schools, Hynes UNO Charter School and Benjamin Franklin High School, the station reported.
Officers from the New Orleans Police Department, Louisiana State Police, the FBI, campus police and the Orleans Levee District Police arrived at Russo’s home in New Orleans’ 7th Ward. The evacuation was canceled and the lockdowns were lifted once Russo was arrested, the same outlet noted. He was booked on one count of terrorizing; wwno.org reported the second count as lawful disruption of the operation of a school, while nola.com described that same count as unlawful disruption of the operation of a school, a discrepancy that remains unresolved in the available reporting.
Russo Says He Was Venting, Not Threatening
Russo has maintained he was venting frustration to his mother and had not directed any threats at anyone in particular. “I truly, truly felt in my heart that I was fighting for my life,” he said, according to the report. He told the outlet he wants to return to campus, saying, “I’m trying to return back to the promised land.”
Accounts of his standing with the school conflict. The outlet’s facts state that Russo was expelled from and banned from LSU New Orleans, but the same reporting also states that Russo denied being expelled or banned from campus, and that a university spokesperson confirmed he was enrolled for the fall semester. In the time since his arrest, Russo transferred to Delgado Community College. The university itself transitioned into the LSU system on June 26, 2026.
A Separate Fight Over Student Loans
Alongside the criminal case, Russo has filed complaints about student loans he said he did not seek, totaling about $20,000. He says the disputed loans remain on his financial ledger and is seeking a debt waiver from federal lenders. “I will not be responsible for the $19,000 with interest,” he said.
