VALLEY MAN, 39, ARRAIGNED ON MAIL THREATS.

Byline: SUSAN ABRAM Staff Writer

WOODLAND HILLS -- Chad Castagana had no driver's license, so when he decided to send threatening letters to celebrities and politicians he walked to mailboxes on Ventura Boulevard near Canoga Avenue, according to an FBI affidavit.

On Monday, the 39-year-old Woodland Hills man was arraigned in U.S. District Court and is being held without bail until Thursday, when a judge would reconsider his bail. He faces charges of conveying false information and sending threats and hoaxes via the U.S. mail, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Federal agents said he had sent more than a dozen letters containing a mysterious white powder to Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, ``Late Show'' host David Letterman and ``The Daily Show'' host Jon Stewart among other high-profile figures. Castagana used aliases such as ``William Shatner'' and fake return addresses and sent the letters over a three-month period, beginning in September, according to the FBI.

Many of the notes inside the envelopes contained death threats, insults and anti-Semitic phrases, federal agents said. The contents of one letter to Stewart referred to Alan Berg, a Jewish talk-show host assassinated by white supremacists in 1984 in Denver.

If found guilty, Castagana could serve up to 15 years in federal prison, officials said.

A Joint Terrorism Task Force that included investigators from the U.S. Postal Service and FBI agents from New York and Los Angeles traced the letters containing the white powder to Castagana, according to the FBI.

A search warrant of Castagana's Woodland Hills home revealed ``possible chemicals that could be used to make weapons of mass destruction or literature that shows how to make it.''

The FBI also confiscated baking soda and Borax, latex gloves and newspaper clippings relating to Pelosi, Letterman, Stewart, and others such as Washington Post assistant managing editor Bob Woodward, MSNBC host Keith Olberman and New York Sen. Charles Schumer.

Castagana told federal agents that he used household substances to make the white powder, to make sure he was being taken seriously.

``Suffice to say, he was presenting a clear danger by sending threats,'' said Laura Eimiller, spokeswoman for the FBI's Los Angeles office. ``Initial testing did not find the powder to be a biological threat.''

On an old van parked in the driveway of Castagana's hillside home, the phrase ``Death to all liberals'' is inscribed on the van's dirty back window.

Castagana lived in a beige, multistory hillside home on Baza Avenue with his 78-year-old mother, Geneve, reportedly suffers from diabetes and rarely ventures out.

He didn't like to be spoken to, said his closest neighbor, Diana Anderson.

``He said to me, `I don't have to talk to people face to face,''' she said Monday. ``I guess that's why he used the mail.''

Castagana ``described himself as a compulsive voter who votes Republican, and he said that he sent the letters to specific individuals because he did not like their liberal politics,'' according to an FBI affidavit.

``I don't think he's crazy or delusional,'' said Anderson. ``I think he may be bipolar and hasn't taken his medication. I wish he would have gotten help.''

susan.abram(at)dailynews.com

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(1 -- 3) Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi and comedians David Letterman and Jon Stewart were targets of threatening letters.