Domagoj Patkovic, of Oregon, in plea deal talks for alleged threats to Jewish facilities on LI and NYC, judge says

An Oregon man accused of threatening to blow up a Nassau County hospital and other Jewish facilities on Long Island and in New York City is discussing a plea agreement with prosecutors, a judge said at the defendant’s arraignment Wednesday in Brooklyn.

According to federal law, defendants must be brought to trial within 70 days after an indictment is filed, U.S. District Judge Ramon E. Reyes said at Wednesday’s arraignment. Lawyers for Domagoj Patkovic, 31, asked to exclude the period of time between Wednesday and Nov. 5 because they are in plea deal talks with prosecutors, the judge said.

Patkovic, of Portland, pleaded not guilty to conspiring to make bomb threats and other crimes detailed in a 23-count indictment unsealed on Aug. 20. Reyes ordered Patkovic, who is in custody, to return to court on Nov 5.

Patkovic’s attorney, James Darrow of the Federal Defenders, told Reyes he would not ask for bail on Wednesday but reserved the right to file a bail application at a later date. Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Zuckerwise of the Eastern District of New York said the government opposed bail for Patkovic.

Darrow declined to comment on the indictment following Wednesday’s hearing in Brooklyn.

Federal prosecutors said Patkovic and others threatened to detonate explosives during anonymous phone calls to hospitals and other Jewish facilities throughout the United States. Patkovic made at least six threatening calls to medical facilities on Long Island and in New York City between May and September 2021, according to court documents. Patkovic was arrested at his Portland home on Aug. 20.

Patkovic livestreamed the calls on Discord, a social media site popular with the far-right, federal prosecutors said in court filings. After vowing to blow up the Nassau hospital, Patkovic repeated the threat to an NYPD 911 operator investigating the call — and then turned the camera on himself, identifying him as the perpetrator.

Nassau County police locked down the hospital and conducted a partial evacuation, prosecutors said. No explosives were found.

Prosecutors have not said why Patkovic allegedly targeted Jewish facilities in New York.

According to court documents, the phone operator at the Nassau hospital received a call on Sept. 15, 2021, from a man who identified himself as "Abrahimavich." The caller said he had placed C-4 explosives in maintenance closets at the hospital and threatened to blow up the operator and the hospital. Personnel at the NYPD call center called the originating number and spoke to a man who acknowledged he was "Abrahimavich," and admitted making the threatening call to the Long Island hospital. The court papers included a screenshot of Patkovic.

Nassau County police locked down the hospital and conducted a partial evacuation, prosecutors said. No explosives were found.

About a half-hour earlier, Patkovic told personnel at a Jewish hospital in Queens that he had placed backpacks with C-4 around the building. NYPD officers searched the building and did not find explosives.

Patkovic also called in bomb threats in 2021 to Jewish health care facilities in Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan, prosecutors allege.