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Not Guilty Plea In School Lock Down Case

FT. LAUDERDALE (CBS4) - A South Florida woman whose emails and phone calls prompted the lock down of Broward schools last month has pleaded not guilty in federal court.

During a hearing Tuesday, 48-year old Ellisa Martinez of New Port Richey said yes when asked if she understood the charge against her, according to the Sun-Sentinel.  Also, through her court appointed attorney, Martinez demanded a jury trial which could be begin by the end of next month.

Martinez is be held without bond because the judge has ruled that she poses a potential threat to the community and is a flight risk.

Prosecutors say Martinez sent a threatening e-mail November 10th to WFTL 850 AM conservative radio talk show host Joyce Kaufman.

The e-mail said the writer liked that Kaufman had encouraged people to "exercise our second amendment rights" and that "something big" would happen at a government building in Broward County, maybe a school. Martinez called the Pompano Beach station later that morning and claimed that her husband, "Bill Johnson", was going to go to a school in Pembroke Pines and start shooting, according to federal authorities who traced the call. The FBI never found any evidence that "Bill Johnson" existed.

Authorities responded by placing all 300 Broward County schools, with about 275,000 students, on lockdown for several hours.

In the e-mail that federal authorities said they tracked to Martinez's computer, the writer expressed a need to "take our country back from the illegal aliens, Jews, Muslims, and Illuminati who are running the show."

The writer also claimed to be "planning something big around a government building here in Broward County, maybe a post office, maybe even a school, I'm going to walk in and teach all the government hacks working there what the 2nd amendment is all about," according to the complaint filed Nov. 12.

Martinez is charged with Interstate Communication of a Threat to injure another.

Source: The Sun-Sentinel

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