You ought to be able to refer to a "bomb" at an airport without law officers alleging that you said you have a bomb.
That is the argument crafted by the lawyer for a 45-year-old Lincoln man charged last week with making terroristic threats, a felony, after he was accused of telling police officers outside Eppley Airfield that he had a bomb.
An Omaha police officer who was working off-duty at the airport alleged in a report that the man threatened three Omaha Airport Authority police officers, telling them he had a bomb in a vehicle or in a backpack.
The report indicates that after an officer told the man, Stephen K. Panarelli, he was under arrest just after 9 a.m. Dec. 30, Panarelli wrestled with two officers trying to subdue him.
Panarelli declined an interview request.
His attorney, James Martin Davis, offered a significantly different account of the incident and said Panarelli would be cleared at trial.
"He never said or did a single thing that was illegal," Davis said.
Panarelli, an information technology employee at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, acknowledges that he made a sarcastic remark to the airport officers, Davis said.
Panarelli was booked on suspicion of resisting arrest, a misdemeanor charge, but prosecutors did not file that charge.
He spent the night in jail and was released the next afternoon after posting 10 percent of his $25,000 bail. The terroristic threats charge was filed Jan. 3.
Patrick O'Neil, assistant professor at the Omaha Aviation Institute at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, said airport police officers have a difficult job and are faced with identifying legitimate security threats.
"You use certain trigger words and your day is going to go bad in a hurry," O'Neil said.
It all began in the drop-off area in front of the Eppley terminal.
Panarelli was a passenger in a maroon 1998 Dodge Caravan parked there, and he was handed a parking ticket while the driver, his girlfriend, was inside using a restroom. He does not drive because he is legally blind, so he couldn't move the vehicle. The couple had driven to the airport to drop off a friend.
The girlfriend was away for perhaps five minutes, Davis said. The ticket was for parking in a prohibited area.
When the girlfriend returned, she drove forward to read a sign on the airport parking rules. The couple saw the officer who had written the ticket, Davis said.
Panarelli and the officer began a heated discussion on the propriety of the ticket, and Panarelli lobbed his explosive retort.
"Congratulations," Panarelli told the officer. "You've just written a parking ticket while somebody could've walked into the airport with a bomb."
"What did you say?" the officer asked, according to Davis.
Panarelli offered to "take it back" but was rebuffed, pulled from the car and arrested, Davis said.
The attorney says the case demonstrates overreaction by airport security.
"Maybe it wasn't smart, but it certainly wasn't illegal," Davis said of the remark. "They don't treat civilians with civility."
Contact the writer:
402-444-3106, emerson.clarridge@owh.com
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