A former University of La Verne student who claimed last year she was threatened, then attacked on campus, denied charges Tuesday that she sent the threats to herself and members of her social justice group and lied to police.

Anayeli DominguezPena, 25, of Ontario pleaded not guilty to a felony count of making a criminal threat, a felony count of perjury, a misdemeanor count of electronic impersonation and six misdemeanor counts of filing a false police report during her arraignment at Pomona Superior Court, according to Los Angeles County District Attorney spokesman Ricardo Santiago.

If convicted as charged, Santiago said, DominguezPena faces a possible maximum sentence of eight years in prison.

Her attorney couldn’t be reached for comment.

DominguezPena is the same student who found a smoking backpack in her parked car on March 1, 2019 which led to the university canceling classes, La Verne police said during a Monday news conference announcing DominguezPena’s arrest.

She allegedly sent seven threats via email or social media plus a note, Detective Bob Nishimura said. The assault and the smoking backpack in the car also count as incidents related to the case.

DominguezPena sent the messages while impersonating the president of one of the campus fraternities, La Verne Police Chief Nick Paz said.

“I think she was trying to instigate some racial issues within the university,” Paz said. “She was sending messages to certain people and the comments that were being sent were of a racial nature.”

Investigators determined that she acted alone, and no other members of her group were involved with the crimes.

DominguezPena was charged with sending a threat to another student on Feb. 28, 2019, according to the criminal complaint. Police said the victim is another student leader of the social justice group who didn’t appear to have any knowledge of DominguezPena’s actions.

Nishimura said he couldn’t confirm whether DominguezPena fabricated the May 28, 2019 attack at a dorm, or if she put the smoking backpack in her car on March 1, 2019.

Police used digital evidence, such as computer files, cell phone data and data on the cloud to determine that DominguezPena was the person sending the threatening messages, Nishimura said.

DominguezPena used a fraternity’s logo and identifiers of the fraternity’s president in threats that she sent in order to focus suspicion on the fraternity and its president, police said.

DominguezPena was charged with perjury because she applied for compensation from the California Victim Compensation Board, according to Nishimura. The board provides assistance in the form of grants to people who are victims of crimes. The criminal complaint shows the alleged perjury occurred March 27, 2019.

“We found the suspect applied for benefits, signed forms under penalty of perjury and tried to get victim compensation benefits from the state,” Nishimura said.

The DA’s Office filed charges against her on Friday and an arrest warrant was issued the same day, he said. Police arrested DominguezPena Monday.

She returns to court April 14 for a hearing.

“These incidents are very upsetting to our community,” University of La Verne spokesman Rod Leveque said. “We pride ourselves on being a safe, diverse and inclusive campus and this really struck at the heart of that.”

DominguezPena was enrolled in a master’s degree program at the time the threats were made, Leveque said.

While classes were cancelled on March 1, 2019, Leveque said the university came together in the campus gymnasium to discuss what happened, as well as the state of race relations both nationally and within the community at the university.

“It was an important and powerful moment for us,” Leveque said. “These’s been a tremendous desire for a resolution and to see this brought to a close.”