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A Holliston man was arrested yesterday for allegedly making bomb threats to a California airport that contained a bizarre reference to popular stalker icon and actress Jodie Foster.

Michael Smegal, 39, was released to his father’s custody on $10,000 surety after he pleaded not guilty during an appearance in federal court to answer to charges of mailing a bomb threat, said Christine DiIorio-Sterling, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Boston.

More than 100 threatening letters were mailed to the Van Nuys Airport between September 2007 and January 2008, all of which were sent from either Massachusetts or Rhode Island. According to an FBI affidavit, the letters all contained an identical block-letter message that read in part, “Jodie Foster S” and the words “going to be a gas bomb in this building.”

The FBI affidavit states that starting in 2004 Smegal began mailing letters to Foster. One included a prepaid cell phone, with instructions to call a number. Foster’s security guard called the number and spoke to a man who identified himself as Michael Smegal. In the course of that conversation, Smegal used the phone to send the guard a picture of himself and his dog. In 2005, a postal inspector visited the suspect’s Holliston home, where Smegal allegedly admitted to mailing letters to Foster and vowed to stop, the affidavit states.

However, more than 100 letters to airports followed and agents who searched Smegal’s home in January found dozens of letters that had yet to be sent, the affidavit states. If convicted, Smegal faces 10 years in prison.

FBI: Mass. Man mailed airport threats, notes to Jodie Foster - BostonHerald.com