A man angry over a $68 parking ticket he received at Carpentaria State Park will be arraigned today for allegedly sending an envelope containing white powder to spook employees of a Costa Mesa-based parking citation collection company.
William Louis Poolman answers to one felony count of mailing a false weapon of mass destruction causing fear, which sounds just as ominous as the penalty the 52-year-old Pacific Grove man faces if convicted: three years in state prison.
The Orange County District Attorney's Office makes its case after the jump . . .
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April 29, 2010
MAN ANGRY OVER PARKING CITATION TO BE ARRAIGNED FOR SENDING FAKE HAZARDOUS MATERIAL TO SCARE COLLECTION COMPANY WORKERS
SANTA ANA – A man will be arraigned tomorrow for mailing an envelope containing white powder to a parking citation collection company with the intention of leading the victims to believe it contained hazardous material after becoming angry over a $68 ticket. William Louis Poolman, 52, Pacific Grove, is charged with one felony count of mailing a false weapon of mass destruction causing fear and faces a maximum sentence of three years in state prison if convicted. He is being held on $100,000 bail and is expected to be arraigned tomorrow, Friday, April 30, 2010, at 9:00 a.m. in Department CJ-1, Central Jail, Santa Ana.
On Feb. 7, 2010, Poolman received a citation for $68.50 from the California Department of State Parks and Recreation for failing to pay for parking at Carpentaria State Park. Poolman appealed and requested a review of the citation, but the citation was upheld March 12, 2010. He was instructed to send payment to a parking citation collection agency, Judicial Data Systems, in Costa Mesa.
In the days leading up to April 12, 2010, Poolman is accused of mailing his check for $68.50 to Judicial Data Systems with a copy of his denied “Request for Violation Review” form. He is accused of including approximately one gram of a white powdery substance in the envelope with the intention of frightening the recipients into believing it was a hazardous substance. In the memo section of his check and across the request for review form, Poolman is accused of writing threatening and profane messages.
The envelope containing the white powder was received by the company in Costa Mesa on April 12, 2010. Emergency response personnel responded and ultimately determined that the substance was not hazardous.
The defendant was arrested yesterday, April 28, 2010, at a restaurant where he worked in Monterey.
Deputy District Attorney Andrew Katz of the Special Prosecutions Unit is prosecuting this case.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.