BOSTON — The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced that two Massachusetts men pleaded guilty today in federal court in Boston to conspiring to damage a Harvard Medical School building by using a large commercial firework.
Logan David Patterson, 18, of Plymouth, and Dominick Frank Cardoza, 21, of Bourne, each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to damage, by means of an explosive. U.S. District Court Judge Angel Kelley scheduled sentencing hearings for Aug. 4, 2026. Patterson and Cardoza were arrested and charged in November 2025.
According to federal prosecutors, surveillance cameras at Huntington Avenue and Longwood Avenue in Boston captured two males, later identified as Patterson and Cardoza, walking toward the Harvard Medical School campus at approximately 2:23 a.m. on Nov. 1, 2025. Prosecutors said they were wearing face coverings and dark clothing.
At approximately 2:24 a.m., surveillance video captured the two lighting what appeared to be roman candle fireworks, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.
At approximately 2:33 a.m., prosecutors say Patterson and Cardoza were seen climbing over a chain-link fence into a construction area around the Goldenson Building. Minutes later, they allegedly climbed scaffolding beside the building to access the roof.
At approximately 2:45 a.m., campus police received a fire alarm alert from an explosion on the fourth floor of the Goldenson Building, which houses a research laboratory within Harvard Medical School’s Department of Neurobiology.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts reported that Patterson and Cardoza detonated a large commercial firework inside a wooden locker in the fourth-floor research laboratory. Subsequent security camera footage captured the two visiting the fifth floor of the building before exiting through a first-floor emergency exit and fleeing in opposite directions. As they fled, prosecutors Patterson and Cardoza removed and discarded clothing items they had worn on Harvard Medical School’s campus, they then returned to the nearby campus of the Wentworth Institute of Technology, where they had been visiting for Halloween social activities.
The charge of conspiracy to damage, by means of fire or an explosive, carries a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Ted E. Docks, special agent in charge of the FBI Boston Division, announced the guilty pleas today. Assistant U.S. Attorney David M. Holcomb of the National Security Unit is prosecuting the case.
