Man pleads not guilty to terror threats in Rancho Cucamonga

A teenager accused of making terrorist threats and stalking military veterans at Universal Technical Institute in Rancho Cucamonga pleaded not guilty to a handful of felony counts Tuesday.

Albert Maida, 19, a U.S.-born Syrian, was studying diesel mechanics at the automotive repair school when students reported him to the administration for making threatening comments and for saying he supported ISIS.

Administrators contacted police on June 13 to report Maida’s actions, and he was arrested for criminal threats when he arrived at school four days later on June 17.

According to police reports, students said that over a period of several weeks, Maida made comments in support of ISIS, showed students a picture of firearms he had at home, randomly shouted “Allah hu Akbar” in class and in the veterans’ lounge at the school, and asked another student, “What would they do if I had a bomb in my backpack?”

Maida specifically targeted veterans, who are identified as former service members on their school name badges, according to reports.

“Based on what the students said, deputies felt the actions fulfilled criminal threats,” said Jacob Bailey, public information officer from the Rancho Cucamonga Police Department, “It was enough to act on the side of caution.”

The Universal Technical Institute suspended Maida and also increased the law enforcement presence on its Rancho Cucamonga campus, said a student services official.

Maida’s attorney, Peter Schlueter, said that Maida was initially released on $50,000 bail, paid by his family, but was rearrested last week after the San Bernardino County district attorney filed additional charges against him. He now faces five felony counts — two for criminal threats, two for stalking, and one for making a bomb threat. His bail was hiked up to $750,000 and he is being held in a San Bernardino County Jail.

Schlueter said that Maida is not a terrorist, but a regular 19-year-old who was simply responding to teasing from other students.

“He is a Syrian who was bullied at school for being Syrian. They called him ISIS and other things,” Schlueter said. “He reacted like a teenager.”

“He’s not a meek kid,” Schlueter added. “If anything, he’s mouthy.”

But Schlueter believes that if a white teenager said the same things that Maida is accused of saying, there would be no case. “This is the result of blind prejudice,” said Schlueter.

During a search of Maida’s home on June 17, deputies confiscated more than a dozen firearms, including a Browning automatic rifle and an AR-15 assault rifle.

Maida’s mother, Najwa Maida, defended her son and her family’s right to own guns, which she said were only used for hunting.

“They are all clean, they are all licensed,” she said. “Just because my husband loves hunting, we are terrorists?”

Najwa Maida came to America in 1989 and said that her family is devoutly Catholic. Dozens of family members and friends, as well as a priest, accompanied the family to Rancho Cucamonga Superior Court on Tuesday, and a concerned bishop wrote a letter to the judge in Maida’s defense.

“They just know that we are Arab. They don’t recognize that we are Christian,” she said, her voice wavering with emotion. “They accused us of being terrorists, but they don’t know that the terrorists killed our brothers; they killed our cousins.”

If convicted, Maida faces four years and four months in federal prison, according to the district attorney’s office. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 11.