Educator Pleads Not Guilty in Death Threat Case

A former award-winning assistant principal at San Marino High School remained behind bars Wednesday after she allegedly mailed dozens of bogus death threats to herself and her police officer lover, then blamed the missives on students

Mary Andrea Mitchel, 41, was ordered held on almost $500,000 bail after she surrendered to authorities Tuesday. Mitchel, who was celebrated as one of the district’s most valuable employees last year, allegedly wrote 39 letters, some of which threatened shootings at high school graduations or school bombings or contained an unidentified white, powdery substance.

Mitchel sent the letters between March and November of last year, prosecutors said. She notified police, who provided armed escorts and surveillance.

“Police took these letters very seriously, and at the end of the day we charged her for sending the letters to herself,” said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.

Prosecutors wouldn’t say why Mitchel allegedly sent the letters to herself and to then-school police officer Jim Henson. Defense lawyer Michael Mayock, however, said she was suffering from extreme stress as the result of being overworked by the school, being a caregiver for a terminally ill relative and being “pursued” romantically by Henson.

“All of this combined into this life crisis situation,” Mayock said. “She thought, ‘Maybe this will change things.’ I look at it as a cry for help.”

During arraignment in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Pasadena on Tuesday, Mitchel entered a not-guilty plea to charges of making terrorist threats, offering false evidence, preparing false documents and making a false bomb report.

Police reportedly spent 780 hours investigating the bogus threats and devoted more than $33,000 worth of resources to the investigation, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Shelly Torrealba. The investigation included the South Pasadena Police Department, the FBI and U.S. postal inspectors. At one point, the probe involved a search of all mail sent to the high school.

Prosecutors said that during their investigation, Mayock named seven high school students as possible culprits. They were interviewed and found to have had nothing to do with the threats, prosecutors said.

Both Mitchel and Henson have resigned.

Mayock said that Mitchel has been under psychiatric care for months and that he was concerned about her mental health. He asked that she be placed under medical observation.