A Weston man once called one of the Internet's most notorious pirates of music and movies is too dangerous to be released from prison following charges that he blew up several portable toilets, a federal judge ruled.
U.S. Magistrate Holly Fitzsimmons ordered Bruce Forest to undergo a medical evaluation and rejected efforts by his family to release him on bond.
Forest was charged in May with seven counts of using explosives to destroy property and seven counts of discharging a firearm in connection with the explosions from last October through March.
No one was injured.
"We're at a loss to explain why he was doing this, other than the excitement of blowing things up," Weston Police Chief Anthony Land said in March when Forest was arrested on state charges.
Most of the explosions occurred at night in isolated areas, but the last blast in Norwalk occurred during the day in a heavily populated area, authorities said. The explosives involved a mixture of chemicals, Land said.
Forest's family offered to secure a bond with two houses they valued at up to $5 million and proposed home confinement with electronic monitoring. But Fitzsimmons on Wednesday ordered him detained, saying that an arsenal of weapons was found at his home and the charges involved "an escalating pattern of destruction."
The judge also cited evidence that Forest was using drugs or medications illegally obtained over the Internet and told a neighbor he was working for the government and was responsible for repelling any terrorist attack on the neighborhood. Forest scared his wife, who described him as moody, depressed, paranoid and hostile toward her and their children, though not violent, Fitzsimmons said.
"Given the uncertainty concerning the defendant's physical and emotional health, the court cannot have any reasonable assurance that the proposed conditions will deter him from flight or protect the community," Fitzsimmons wrote.
She also ordered Forest to be examined within 30 days with recommendations for any treatment.
Forest was being treated for anxiety, depression and migraine headaches stemming from a fall that caused head trauma, according to a court-appointed social worker.
Forest was a notorious Internet pirate in the late 1990s, said J.D. Lasica, a San Francisco writer who dubbed Forest "Prince of the Darknet" in his 2005 book "Darknet: Hollywood's War Against the Digital Generation."
