Internet Pirate Charged in Toilet Bombings to Plead Guilty

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – A Weston man once called one of the Internet's most notorious pirates of music and movies plans to plead guilty to a federal charge that he blew up a portable toilet last year, according to court records filed Thursday.

Bruce Forest was charged last year with seven counts of using explosives to destroy property and seven counts of discharging a firearm in connection with a series of toilet explosions in 2005 and 2006.

No one was injured.

Under a plea agreement, Forest intends to plead guilty on Feb. 12 to a charge that he blew up a toilet in Weston in February 2006, according to court papers his attorney, Bernard Grossberg, filed Thursday.

Telephone messages were left Thursday for Grossberg and prosecutors.

"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 last year when Forest was arrested on state charges.

Forest is also asking to be released from prison so he can get medical treatment. He proposes remaining in the custody of his wife and mother under home confinement with electronic monitoring.

Under the proposed conditions of the release, Forest's home would be subject to random searches and he would not be allowed to possess a gun.

Last year, U.S. Magistrate Holly Fitzsimmons ruled that Forest was too dangerous to be released from prison and ordered him to undergo a medical evaluation.

Fitzsimmons said 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.

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, police said.

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."