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A White Plains man was arrested after allegedly threatening to blow up a New Rochelle office building where the state Department of Health has set up its coronavirus testing command post.

With city courts closed because of the coronavirus outbreak, Pedro Cheng, 54, was arraigned in Westchester County Court Tuesday afternoon on a felony charge of making a terroristic threat.

State Supreme Court Judge Barry Warhit sat as a city court judge and released Cheng without bail. Although the state's new bail laws allow for bail to be set in some cases related to terrorism, the specific charge Cheng faces is not among them.

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According to the felony complaint by state police Investigator Paul Schneeloch, Cheng called the office building at 145 Huguenot St. just before 6 p.m. on Monday and told the man who answered the phone that he was going "to blow up this (expletive) building with all of you guys inside". The complaint made no reference to the coronavirus and it was unclear whether Cheng knew about the state health operation there.

The building also houses the Westchester County Department of Health and is up the block from the Trump Plaza apartment building.

State police have a presence at the building and were notified immediately about the call. The phone number that came through showed up as anonymous but when police checked the building's two phone numbers, a number linked to Cheng was identified, court documents suggested.

The building was put on lockdown Monday night and checked by bomb-detecting K-9s with negative results.

Neither Cheng nor the Legal Aid lawyer who represented him could be reached following the arraignment.

Cheng pleaded guilty in 2006 to unlawfully dealing with a child, a misdemeanor for which he was sentenced to a conditional discharge. He avoided jail and probation when by staying out of trouble for a year.

Twitter: @jonbandler