KEY POINTS:
BOSTON - Authorities charged two men today with planting battery-powered advertising signs for an animated cartoon that were mistaken for bombs and caused Boston's biggest security scare since the September 11 attacks.
But investigators were also probing the role of US media group Turner Broadcasting, which has apologised for yesterday's day-long security scare triggered by a "guerrilla" marketing campaign for one of its cartoon shows.
Sean Stevens, 28, and Peter Berdovsky, 27, were charged in state district court with placing a hoax device and disorderly conduct and released on a US$2500 cash bond each.
Prosecutors said the two were paid by a New York marketing company hired by Turner, and Mayor Thomas Menino has said the city may sue the company, a unit of Time Warner Inc.
"We're not unaware of the fact that the defendants are not at the top of the hierarchy (of responsibility) here," Massachusetts Assistant Attorney General John Grossman told the court hearing.
Berdovsky -- a Belarus native with flowing dreadlocks -- and Stevens mocked the process in an appearance with reporters, insisting on talking about hairstyles from the 1970s rather than addressing questions about the incident.
The men's lawyer said Turner Broadcasting would pay their legal fees.
The 30-cm signs -- a total of 38 across the city under bridges, on storefronts and near busy train stations -- were meant to promote an animated cartoon character for an adult-themed show on Turner's Cartoon Network called Aqua Teen Hunger Force. A movie version is also being produced.
The signs were encased in dark plastic with wires protruding and lights wired to an electronic circuit board, and included a cartoon characters making an obscene gesture. After the first one was found on Wednesday morning, police responded to calls of similar devices in at least eight other areas of Boston.
"These devices looked like a bomb," Grossman said.
"When I talked to the bomb squad who responded there ... they tell us that what they look for is a power source, which existed here...they look for a circuit and there was a circuit board with wires attached to it. And that wire was running to what to their eye appeared to be a possible explosive material. It was wrapped in duct tape," said Grossman.
Grossman added that their location in some of Boston's busiest areas also looked suspicious. "The location was such that it was the type of location one would put a bomb if you wanted to interrupt the infrastructure," he said.
At the height of the alert, authorities mobilized emergency crews, federal agents, bomb squads, hundreds of police and the US Coast Guard as traffic came to a halt in busy areas. Roads, bridges and even part of the Charles River were closed.
Officials estimate the scare cost Boston between US$500,000 and US$750,000.
Turner said the magnetic signs had been installed in 10 major US cities and were not intended to be a public threat. Police in Chicago said they rounded up about 20 of the devices there but made no arrests.
- REUTERS
