Bloomington man remains jailed as May 20 trial set for Ottawa school threat case

A Bloomington man will stand trial May 20 for allegedly threatening to conduct a mass shooting and to bomb Shepherd Middle School in Ottawa.

Bruce Sirtoff, 37, appeared Friday in La Salle County Circuit Court and entered a not-guilty plea to four felony charges led by making a terrorist threat, a Class X felony carrying six to 30 years in prison with no possibility of probation.

Chief Judge H. Chris Ryan Jr. handed down a trial setting that includes a final pretrial conference May 16. Sirtoff will next appear in court May 3 to argue any pretrial motions.

Attorneys agreed that there have been no significant changes in Sirtoff’s circumstances, which led Ryan to keep Sirtoff jailed.

Sirtoff, who entered the courtroom heavily manacled, had been denied pretrial release after prosecutors disclosed specific details of Sirtoff’s alleged threats of violence at the Ottawa school.

The alleged March 1 threat was uttered not at the campus but at an Ottawa service station and during overnight hours when no students would have been present, prosecutors said.

In a follow-up news release, Ottawa police said they raided Sirtoff’s residence, assisted by Bloomington police, but the search turned up “no items consistent with his threats.”