There are laws about lasers near airports. The law sets up three zones, and each zone has a maximum power density.
IIRC, the closest zone is two miles, and it basically says "no laser beam", then the other zones are concentric. The outer zone is, I think, 6 microwatts of laser light per square centimeter. The law is set up to protect airports from outdoor laser shows or indistrial/scientific laser use.
If this guy met these guidelines, then there is "interfering with an aircraft" which includes bright lights, spotlights, searchlights, and lasers. There probably is a specific federal law that states that you can't shine a laser at an aircraft so that it bothers the pilots, but I'm not sure.
Then there are state and local laws- malicious mischief is a good broad category.
There are enough existing laws to convince this dude he had a lapse in judgement. I think the Patriot Act is an overkill; one that could backfire if the defense is on the ball.
When I have time I'll link to a post that has the limits and distances for airports and lasers.
Certainly aiming a laser beam at a pilot should be punished most harshly...but since nothing happened and no one was harmed how could it be charged under Patriot?
If his intentions were not terror based, Patriot should not be used I guess. But I'm not sure...
The distance thing puzzles me. You can live in Parsippany, or your home can be near Teterboro Airport, BUT NOT BOTH! I used to live in Parsippany and you might get in the Essex County Airport lanes, but Teterboro is too far away. Yahoo has 24 miles from the "center" of Parsippany to the Airport. Even if it was from the closest point in the township to the airport, that is still over 20 miles. Something doesn't add up on what has been released. Maybe we will get to know the exact location distance from where he was to the airport.