Man who had inert grenade on bus pleads not guilty

Friday, Sept. 9, 2005 | 9:24 a.m.

The 23-year-old Iranian man who on Aug. 1 allegedly claimed to be Osama bin Laden's cousin before displaying an inert grenade on a bus pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges stemming from the incident.

Eman Zaeri is charged with making threats or conveying false information concerning acts of terrorism and one count of burglary.

A burglary charge can be applied in any case in which someone goes into an enclosed place, in this case a bus, allegedly with the intent to commit a felony.

Zaeri allegedly threatened to blow up an employee transfer bus headed to Buffalo Bill's in Primm on Aug. 1.

A Clark County grand jury indicted Zaeri on Sept. 2 and his bail was set at $1 million.

On Thursday District Judge Donald Mosley agreed to hear arguments on Zaeri's bail on Sept. 21 at which time he we also set a trial date.

Although Zaeri has been in the United States legally for the past two years the Immigration, Customs and Enforcement Department has said if he is convicted of the current charges he could be subject to deportation.

Metro's Homeland Security unit has confirmed that they are involved in an ongoing investigation into Zaeri but will not elaborate as to the specifics of the investigation.

But Ted Williams, Zaeri's lawyer, said federal officials dropped pursuit of any federal charges against Zaeri 12 days after he was arrested.

Williams said he figures the federal officials fairly quickly realized that Zaeri is no terrorist.

"Otherwise the feds wouldn't have dropped it after 12 days," Williams said.

"This is just a relatively immature, naive kid who is not familiar with what is or isn't appropriate behavior in the United States. He's culturally and socially immature, but not a danger."

Zaeri's co-worker, Ana Guizcar, told police the Buffalo Bill employee bus was driving down Interstate 15 when Zaeri turned to her and said, "I'm getting tired of the job, I'm going to blow up Buffalo Bill's today."

Guizcar said Zaeri was listening to music with headphones and said, "I'm listening to what God's going to tell me to do next" and that he was 'Osama Bin Laden's cousin.'

She said when she began questioning Zaeri he pulled out the grenade and said, "You know, I better do it right now, in the bus."

Guizcar told police she grabbed the grenade from Zaeri and gave it to a fellow co-worker sitting behind her who then gave it to a security guard from Buffalo Bills who was also on the bus.

Guizcar said the bus driver was notified and he stopped the bus under the St. Rose Parkway overpass where he ordered all of the passengers off the bus and called Metro Police. The Nevada Highway Patrol and Metro officers subsequently shut down the southbound lanes of Interstate 15.

The first arriving patrol officers arrested Zaeri before placing his backpack containing the grenade roughly 100 meters from a temporary command site established under an overpass.

The Las Vegas Fire & Rescue bomb squad would later determine the grenade did not contain an explosive charge or a trigger.