Trial date set for UK student accused of making social media threats

Haily Duvall, 19, a UK student, was charged with threatening interstate communications, false statements and false information in Federal District Court in Lexington on Friday, Nov. 16, 2018.

Rick Childress
December 18, 2018

After federal and state court proceedings this week, Haily Duvall—the UK sophomore accused of making online threats against campus last month—will stand trial in federal court in February, WDRB reported.

Duvall, 19, was charged by the federal government in late November with 15 different charges stemming from the alleged threats that were sent via Snapchat and circulated amongst students over social media. She was officially charged with threatening interstate communications, false statements and false information.

She was also originally charged in Fayette County court, but those charges were dropped this week, WDRB reported. Her trial in federal court is set for February 12.

Duvall, who was a pre-nursing sophomore who also worked at UK HealthCare facilities, was originally arrested in the early morning hours of Thursday, Nov. 8, after she allegedly had been making threats against UK’s campus via Snapchat the day prior.

The threats plunged UK into uncertainty, causing classes to be cancelled en masse. During the morning following her arrest, UK’s White Hall classroom—which was directly mentioned in one of the Snapchat threats— was nearly devoid of students.

Duvall told the Kernel and other local media outlets, prior to the arrest, that she had been one of the first to report the threats to UK police and that she had assisted in the investigation. Throughout the day and night before her arrest she allegedly posted often about the threats in a groupchat filled with thousands of students.

According to an arrest citation, Duvall provided the police with two separate Snapchat usernames for the accounts that were sending the threats. Those accounts were tracked through the app’s emergency disclosures. Through the emergency disclosures, the police were able to pinpoint that the accounts were connected to an IP address under Duvall’s name and at her home address.

She was released by state authorities after her first arrest, but was soon rearrested after federal charges were brought forth. At a federal hearing in Lexington just before Thanksgiving—where the judge ruled to release Duvall—details about an alleged flight attempt and of Duvall’s mental and childhood history were brought before the court.