A Northern California man pleaded guilty today in Los Angeles federal court to a felony charge after orchestrating a terrifying campaign against entertainment executives. Seth Daniel Stewart admitted to making a hoax bomb threat against The Walt Disney Company. The 25-year-old defendant faces a statutory maximum penalty of up to 10 years in federal prison under federal sentencing guidelines.
Federal court documents revealed a bizarre intellectual property obsession motivated the multi-year harassment campaign. Operating online under the pseudonym Angel Cross, Stewart relentlessly tried to acquire the rights to the popular 1990s television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Disney currently controls the franchise following its corporate acquisition of 20th Century Fox assets. When Disney representatives repeatedly rejected his demands, Stewart targeted a specific corporate attorney.
Terrifying Harassment Campaign Escalates Online
The targeted lawyer eventually sent Stewart a formal cease-and-desist letter to halt the unwanted communications. However, the legal warning caused the defendant’s behavior to rapidly spiral into cyberstalking and violent intimidation. Stewart published a 22-page document packed with private personal identifying information belonging to the lawyer and other Disney personnel on a notorious dark web doxxing website. This leaked data included private home addresses, corporate job titles, personal cell phone numbers, and private email accounts.
Stewart also left countless threatening voicemails at Disney corporate offices, explicitly stating his intent to physically kill the corporate attorney. His aggressive messages frequently targeted what he called the company’s woke executives. Alongside the terroristic threats, Stewart weaponized local food establishments by sending dozens of unwanted prank pizza deliveries to the victims’ private home residences and corporate offices.
Fake Bomb Threat Triggers Federal Charges
The aggressive harassment campaign culminated in a major public security scare. Stewart called the main Disney guest services phone hotline while masking his true identity by posing as an internal employee. The caller fabricated a story claiming an explosive device had been planted and was ready to detonate at the company’s corporate offices. Federal law enforcement officials quickly traced the call back to the northern California resident.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge previously issued a temporary restraining order forcing Stewart to halt all corporate contact. His official federal sentencing hearing is officially scheduled for August 5, 2026, before a United States District Judge.
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