TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Harris said parole supervision for Nee included counseling for anger management and a mental health evaluation. Nee also has to be screened for alcohol and drug use and has a nightly curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. He is under parole supervision until July. Coria Holland, spokesperson for the state commissioner on probation, said Nee would be on probation until May 2010.

Nee had a parole hearing on March 28 and was paroled on May 8, said Terrel Harris, spokesman for the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security. The parole hearing came after Nee had served about half of his jail sentence.

"Obviously, being his parents, we're heartbroken," father Thomas Nee said after the sentencing.

Nee's attorney, Thomas Drechsler, asked Judge Charles Grabau to spare Nee any additional jail time.

"My client did go to police, and Kerns didn't. I felt that he should have gotten a more lenient sentence," Drechsler said. He said he plans to appeal the conviction.

Nee’s family was in tears, hugging outside the courtroom. His sister, Katherine Nee, said the ruling sends a message that people should not go to the police.

“Nobody ever gets the max when they are that young,” said one comment posted by someone using the screen name Lost Cause. “At the most he will get approximately 2 years, and after good behavior and any time served, he will not spend much time at all in the land of forced love.”

TheTrenchcoat Chronicles is Web site that says it specializes in following school shootings.

A poster there, using the screen name Trench Reynolds, said people seeking “true justice” should not celebrate just yet.

“If this is the only charge that Nee is convicted of he probably won’t see that much time,” the poster said. “Personally I’ll be surprised if he even sees the inside of a jail because of his connections.”

Hours earlier, Judge Charles Grabau said that the prosecution had proven its case on all three charges against Nee. But Grabau changed his mind after hearing closing arguments.

After Grabau announced that he intended to find Nee guilty on all three charges, the 21-year-old’s family members began crying in the courtroom at Plymouth Superior Court. Nee hugged his mother to comfort her.

But defense attorney Thomas Dreschler interrupted the scene, objecting that the judge had not heard closing arguments. Grabau said there had been a misunderstanding and that he would reconsider his verdict after hearing from both sides.

Farley, who was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony, said during cross-examination: "It's been dragged out so many years, everything's foggy. . . . I cannot give an accurate testimony."

His father, Thomas J. Nee, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, said after the nearly seven-hour hearing that he was glad to finally be in court.

"This is where the truth comes out," he said. "I have faith in the system."

Plymouth Juvenile Court Judge Louis Coffin has scheduled a hearing for Thursday, Sept. 27, at 2 p.m. in the case of former Marshfield High School student Toby Kerns, accused of plotting a Columbine-style attack at the school.

Kerns, 19, was tried as a youthful offender in juvenile court last October, but Coffin did not issue a verdict while waiting for a ruling from the Supreme Judicial Court on the validity of one of the charges against him.

The SJC ruled Aug. 9 that Kerns should be charged on the basis of a state law passed in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, after Coffin had indicated he might apply a different statute.

Kerns was indicted in 2004 on charges of conspiracy to commit murder, promotion of anarchy and the threatened use of deadly weapons at a school, which was the disputed charge. Coffin dismissed the anarchy charge during the trial.

Alleged co-conspirator Joseph Nee, 21, was indicted on the same charges, but his case has not yet gone to trial. He will be tried as an adult.

In a key victory for Plymouth prosecutors, the state's high court outlined today how a new law aimed at terrorist conspiracies should apply to two teenagers charged with plotting a Columbine-style attack on Marshfield High School in 2004.

In a unanimous opinion, the Supreme Judicial Court said the law was crafted to punish people who discuss violent attacks on public places or against individuals. The SJC said for someone to be convicted, prosecutors do not have to prove that the intended target somehow learns about the attack. The court said prosecutors cannot use evidence from co-conspirators to prove their case, but can draw on witnesses who learned about the threats. Today's ruling is believed to be the first time the SJC provided guidance to judges on how to interpret the five-year-old statute.