RICHFIELD, Utah -- The man facing a terrorism charge spoke to FOX 13 News about calling in a bomb threat to a Richfield hospital to stop the birth of his daughter, saying he made the threat out of love.
Michael Morlang said when he realized he wouldn’t be there for the birth of his daughter, he didn’t know what else to do to push back his wife’s C-section.
He has been sitting in an Idaho jail since then, and he faces a federal bomb threat charge.
A jury indicted the 26-year-old last week for allegedly phoning in a bomb threat to Sevier Family Medical Center in September, where his wife awaited the procedure.
“I don't want everyone thinking I'm a animal [sic],” he said.
Morlang didn’t mean for his call to cause so much trouble, and he didn’t want the reaction it got.
“It wasn't out of anger, or spite, or malice, or anything,” he said. “It was just out of love.”
A lot had been riding on the birth of his daughter. Morlang said he and his wife are separated, and he’s battling a drug addiction.
“I needed something better: A better high than f----- putting a needle in my arm,” he said.
Morlang hoped his daughter coming into the world would be the answer. A bomb threat to stop that C-section, to him, didn’t seem that far-fetched.
“It's the first thing that popped into my head, it was like, ‘They can't have the surgery if she's not in the hospital,’” he said. “It was the only thing I could think of to do at the moment.”
That threat led to the evacuation and lockdown of the hospital. A bomb squad, the FBI, and Homeland Security were called in.
Sevier Valley Medical Center estimates the day-long ordeal put them out $100,000.
“I never thought it'd be a federal charge," Morlang said. "I didn't think about the terrorist thing. I didn't think it was going to be anything like that.”
Now, he knows. The federal terrorist charge he now faces could land him in prison for a decade.
“I do apologize to the hospital,” he said.
He has yet to meet his daughter in person, but Morlang hopes he’ll get another chance to make it right.
“What I'm trying to do is just fix everything with my wife, get out there for my daughter,” he said.
Morlang said, in the end, he found out his daughter had already been born when he called in the threat.
