Paterson Girls Plead Not Guilty to Video Threats

Two northern New Jersey girls accused of threatening to kill their seventh-grade classmates in a video posted online have pleaded not guilty to making terroristic threats.

The Record newspaper reported the girls were arraigned Monday in family court, one on 10 counts and the other on six counts.

The judge ordered that the girls, who were arrested last week, remain on home detention and electronic monitoring. He also continued orders that bar them from their school and from contacting anyone mentioned in the video.

The girls' names have not been made public because they are juveniles.

Witnesses have said that roughly a dozen students were named as targets in the 20-minute video, which was posted on YouTube but has since been taken down. It shows the girls laughing and giggling as they discuss who they would like to kill, with the girl on camera at one point saying, "Wouldn't you guys think I'd be the best assassin ever?"

No one was injured.

"I think all of us need to step back and realize we're dealing with 13-year-olds here," said Robert Galluccio, an attorney for one of the defendants.

He said children sometime "do stupid things."

"What we're really into here is looking into what were the motives and whether there was ever any intention to carry this out," he said.

A status conference in the case was set for May 23.

(Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)