Miller has been arrested and charged with allegedly calling in a false bomb threat last month on an Amtrak train traveling to New York.
T.J. Miller has been arrested and charged with allegedly calling in a false bomb threat last month on an Amtrak train traveling to New York.
The 36-year-old actor was arrested Monday night at LaGuardia Airport in Queens, New York. He appeared on Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Mayer in New Haven, Connecticut, and was released on a $100,000 bond.
The charge carries a maximum term of imprisonment of five years.
ET has reached out to Miller's rep.
According to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut, the criminal complaint alleges that on March 18, Miller called a a 911 dispatcher and reported that he was on Amtrak Train 2256 and that a female passenger “has a bomb in her bag.” Amtrak officials stopped the train as soon as they could in Westport, Connecticut, where passengers were directed to get off the train, and bomb squad members boarded and searched the train. No evidence of any explosive device or materials was detected.
The complaint alleges that an investigator then contacted Miller, whose description of the woman changed. The officer claims he detected slurring in Miller's voice and asked if the former Silicon Valley star had consumed alcohol that day, to which he replied that he had consumed “one glass of red wine.” Miller also said he wasn't suffering from mental illness, and said that he was "worried" for everyone on the train.
The complaint further alleges that investigators later determined that Miller had actually been traveling on Amtrak Train 2258, not 2256, and that during the Connecticut stop, Amtrak officers interviewed an attendant from the First Class car where the actor had been sitting. According to the complaint, the attendant claimed that Miller appeared intoxicated upon boarding, consumed multiple drinks on the train and had to be removed in New York due to being intoxicated.
The attendant also claimed that Miller had been involved in hostile exchanges with a woman who was sitting in a different row from him in the First Class car. The complaint alleges that investigators identified and interviewed the female in question, and determined that that she was not carrying any explosives. The complaint alleges that Miller, motivated by a grudge against the female, called 911 to relay false information about a suspected bomb on the train, and continued to convey false information to investigators while the public safety response was ongoing.
Alison Stewart, a contributor at The Atlantic & PBS, was on the Amtrak train in March and tweeted video from the scene at the time. "At least 16 police vehicles on the scene at @amtrak Green’s Farm station in CT," she wrote. "No one has told us anything -- one officer mentioned a call and then backtracked."
"The @Amtrak at Green’s Farm has been cleared," she later added. "An officer came through and said they thought there was something dangerous on board. They did question 4 women, each w/ short dark hair wearing white sweaters -- one of them on my car just got her ID back. The officer was very polite."
Miller has yet to comment on his arrest, though he did tweet on Tuesday about his upcoming comedy show in Philadelphia.
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