Californian charged with anti-Muslim attack pleads not guilty

HAYWARD, Calif. -- A woman caught on video shouting insults at Muslim men praying in a California park last month pleaded not guilty Thursday to two misdemeanor charges for the incident, CBS SF Bay Area reports.

Denise Slader, 50, is scheduled to return to Alameda County Superior Court in Hayward on Feb. 26 for a pretrial hearing on the alleged battery against the two victims in the Dec. 6 incident, according to the station. Slader has also been charged with a hate-crime.

After shouting insults, Slader later allegedly attacked one of the men with her umbrella and threw coffee at him.

Judge Andrew Steckler set an April 4 trial date for Slader, who worked for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation but has been placed on leave pending the results of an internal investigation, according to the station.

Judge Jeffrey Brand granted a restraining order against Slader last month. She must stay 200 yards away from Rasheed Albeshari, who recorded the incident and posted the video to Facebook, as well as from Lake Chabot Regional Park, near San Francisco.

Prosecutor Tim Wellman asked Steckler to set $10,000 bail because that is the normal bail tied to the two offenses Slader faces. Slader, however, was allowed to remain free on her own recognizance, the station reported.

According to CBS SF Bay Area, East Bay Regional Park District spokeswoman Carolyn Jones said Slader approached the two men as they were praying by the volleyball courts near the park entrance the afternoon of Dec. 6.

She got into a conversation with the men that then escalated into an argument, eventually telling them, "Your God is Satan" and "the Koran is evil," Jones said, according to the station.

One of the men started recording her and later posted the video on the Internet.

In the video, Slader is heard telling the men, "The people you torture are going to be in heaven. You are very deceived by Satan. Your mind has been taken over, brainwashed, and you've got nothing but hate."

A park ranger tried to intervene and told Slater she was being inappropriate, but Slader responded that it was inappropriate for the man to tape her.