Man Pleads Not Guilty to Stalking Officer

A 23-year-old Encino man pleaded not guilty Thursday to three felony charges, including stalking a Los Angeles police detective, and a Los Angeles Municipal Court judge agreed to lower his $1-million bail by $250,000.

Attorneys for Assaf Waknine, who is being held at the Parker Center Jail, argued for a drastically lower bail, but Judge Michael K. Kellogg agreed only to reduce it to $750,000.

Waknine is charged with three felonies: stalking and threatening Los Angeles Police Det. Michael Gervais of the department’s Organized Crime and Intelligence Division, attempted extortion and making a terrorist threat against a San Fernando Valley car dealer.

Waknine, who surrendered to authorities Tuesday, denied all of the charges in an interview from jail earlier this week. He said police are harassing him in the belief he has information on police informants that could be damaging to the department.

According to the charges against him, Waknine followed, harassed and stalked Gervais between Feb. 6 and March 24. During that time, the complaint alleges, Waknine made “a credible threat” against the officer, who believed he and his family were in danger.

Waknine was also charged with attempted extortion by threatening to reveal secrets about Gervais. He also was charged with threatening with great bodily injury a Canoga Park car dealer on Dec. 5, 1994.

Saying Gervais had helped New York authorities convict him on a credit card case, Waknine claimed he had uncovered information on a police informant used in that case, and hundreds of other cases, that could have damaged LAPD investigations.

LAPD officials say Waknine engaged in an aggressive campaign against the detective, even cloning his pager number in order to determine who was calling the officer.

Also, LAPD officials said Waknine was connected to dealers in illegal weapons and that he was dangerous to police.

Waknine, denying he is a danger to anyone, wanted his bail reduced so he could be released in time to spend the upcoming Jewish Passover holiday with his family, said his attorney, Ronald Richards.