After racially discriminating rhetoric and death threats were made to La Raza Student Association through Facebook comments, a man remains in custody facing felony charges and a hefty bail of $275,000.
University Police ended a three month cybercrime investigation after arresting 40-year-old Christopher Cook of Fountain Valley on Nov. 11 at 8:30 a.m.
According to the L.A. Times, Cook had previously been on probation for a vandalism charge in 2009.
On Sept. 17, members of La Raza reported Cook to UPD for making death threats to student officers and one of their advisors on their Facebook page.
“The cybercrime was carefully and methodically investigated,” said Jeff Bliss, director of media and digital news at Cal State Long Beach. “Because the case is now pending before the court, we are not able to provide any additional insights into the investigation.”
Cook has had two court dates in which he pled not guilty to amounting felony charges. His first court appearance was on Nov. 22 at the Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse in Long Beach and charges included five counts of penal code 422, criminal threats with an enhancement of hate crime. Penal code 422 states that it is against the law to willfully threaten a person with death or bodily harm. The case is currently being handled by the district attorney’s office and Cook is being represented by public defender Jacqueline Greene.
Following the discovery of firearms in the defendant’s possession, an additional charge was added on Dec. 4: violation 23920, a misdemeanor that identifies the alteration of a firearm or its mark of identification changed.
Cook also pled not guilty to this charge, and currently remains in custody with an expected court date of Dec. 20.
According to Detective Christopher Brown of university police, Cook said that he “didn’t mean” his threat against the student association online.
La Raza declined to comment on this story.
This story will be updated.