WISCONSIN RAPIDS − A 24-year-old woman charged with calling in a false threat to a Wisconsin Rapids elementary school pleaded not guilty Monday.
Grecia M. Aguirre, of Wisconsin Rapids, faces charges of making a terrorist threat and false reporting of an emergency. Aguirre’s attorney, Laura Tritt, waived Aguirre’s right to a preliminary hearing Monday in front of Wood County Circuit Judge Nicholas Brazeau Jr. A preliminary hearing is when prosecutors have to prove there is enough evidence to show a crime probably was committed and the defendant probably committed it.
Following the waiver, Aguirre pleaded not guilty to the two charges. Brazeau scheduled the next appearance for Feb. 28.
According to the criminal complaint, a staff member at Washington Elementary School in Wisconsin Rapids reported at 11:51 a.m. Nov. 12, a caller said “23 kids at Washington are going to be shot.”
The school determined two fourth-grade classes had 23 students in them. Police searched the backpacks for the two classes and found nothing, according to the complaint. Officers remained at the school the rest of the day.
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Wisconsin Rapids detectives were able to find the number the call came from and traced it to a cellphone belonging to a woman at a business in Plainfield. The woman, who didn’t speak English, told detectives through an interpreter that she had loaned the phone to her coworker, Aguirre, after Aguirre said her own phone went dead.
The phone’s owner said Aguirre had gone into a restroom to make her call and the woman didn’t know who Aguirre called. When Aguirre came out of the bathroom, she asked the woman to enter her password into the phone and Aguirre deleted the number she called, according to the complaint.
Aguirre and another employee at the business said there had been threats at the school and they left work in a hurry, according to the complaint. Aguirre’s boyfriend picked up a child at the school because of the reported threat. Detectives learned he picked up the child three minutes before the school sent out any alerts to parents.
Detectives went to Aguirre’s home and found Aguirre. She denied she made the calls. Aguirre said she used the other woman’s phone because the woman doesn’t speak English and wanted Aguirre to make a call for her.
If convicted of both charges, Aguirre faces a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.
Contact Karen Madden at kmadden@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @KMadden715, Instagram @kmadden715 or Facebook at www.facebook.com/karen.madden.33.
This article originally appeared on Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune: Wisconsin Rapids woman pleads not guilty to calling in threat to school