A former student “activist” was set to appear in court this week for allegedly concocting a hate crime hoax to apply for compensation from the California Victim Compensation Board.

Anayeli Dominguez Peña, 25, stands accused of masterminding a series of threats to herself and other students at the University of La Verne in February 2019 that canceled classes and terrified her classmates.

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CBSLA reports:

Investigators with the La Verne Police Department looked into what they say were nine additional incidents beyond the initial reported threat, including the discovery of a “backpack emitting smoke” inside an unlocked vehicle in a dormitory parking lot.

Police say most of the threats were delivered via email or text message and were directed at ULV, student activist group Decolonize ULV, and Peña herself.

Prosecutors say Peña reported the false threats to police and applied for victim compensation from the California Victim Compensation Board.

Decolonize ULV leveraged the incidents to allege school officials weren’t doing enough to combat racism on campus, with anonymous members blasting the university in the media. The group had held several protests, stormed faculty meetings and penned editorials in the student newspaper about the university’s alleged indifference to racism on campus.

“We don’t know who committed these acts of hate it is an act of hate but we know why it escalated,” a member who didn’t want to be identified told CBSLA at the time. “The administration needs to address this problem.”

ULV canceled classes at one point and issued a statement denouncing the incidents as “despicable” and “an affront to our values as a university.”

“This is a critical moment for us to declare that we will not tolerate this type of behavior,” the statement read.

Police and university officials followed through, and the hate-filled sexually explicit and racist messages led them directly to Pena. Prosecutors allege other members of Decolonize ULV were unaware of the hate hoax, and former member and Pena confidant Osaze Robertson-Stewart confirmed the same to Newsweek.

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“People were worried. They were wondering how far this would go,” he said.

The ordeal escalated until May 2019, when Pena reported to campus police that she was attacked in a dormitory stairwell by two masked men, who groped and beat her. Robertson-Stewart said Pena held a personal grudge against a fraternity on campus and repeatedly alleged its involvement.

Pena is Mexican-American and ULV’s student population is roughly 45 percent Hispanic, 25 percent white and 6 percent black.

According to Newsweek:

While Dominguez Peña did not benefit financially from crowdfunding, Robertson-Stewart says she told him and others at his graduation that the university granted her financial reprieve, though he does not know for how much. He says the university waived his own housing costs in the spring semester because he was a victim in the Instagram threat.

One of Dominguez Peña’s charges include a felony count of perjury for allegedly filing a false claim to receive financial benefits from the California Victim Compensation Board. The state-funded program provides assistance of up to $70,000 per case to help crime victims with relocation, security and medical costs. It is unclear what amount of money she may have received, if any.

Pena pleaded not guilty to a felony count each of criminal threats and perjury by declaration, six misdemeanor counts of filing a false report, and one misdemeanor count of internet/electronic impersonation.

Pena was arrested in March, pleaded not guilty, and was released on a $136,000 bail.

She was set for another hearing on Tuesday.

Pena faces up to eight years in prison, if convicted.