Global Courant
A New York police officer has been arrested on criminal charges after she allegedly sent herself threatening text messages and then blamed her colleagues, the Westchester District Attorney’s Office said.
Ossining police officer Emily Hirshowitz was charged last Wednesday with three counts of first-degree filing a false instrument, misdemeanor and four counts of third-degree falsely reporting an incident, according to the Westchester Journal News.
Hirshowitz joined the force in 2016 after serving as an officer in New Rochelle for two years, the report said. In 2018, she received the Employee of the Year award from the Ossining Rotary Club, which was celebrated by the police on its own Facebook page.
In May last year, Hirshowitz reportedly filed a complaint with the district attorney’s office about harassing and anonymous text messages she received on her personal phone. She claimed “a fellow police officer or several police officers in my department are involved” and pushed for an investigation to unmask the alleged perpetrator, according to Journal News.
FLORIDA COP LOSES WHEN ANOTHER OFFICER TRUNCHES HIM FOR DANGEROUS SPEED: ‘I’M GOING TO WORK, MY MAN’
Ossining police officer Emily Hirshowitz receives award. (Police station Ossining/FB)
She sent screenshots of the messages to investigators, including notes urging her to kill herself and others saying she was a “dumb (expletive),” “useless” and a “rejection,” according to the indictment reviewed by the Westchester Journal News.
Ossining police and local leaders soon got involved and contacted the district attorney to point out how “increasingly menacing” the “content” of the messages had become, according to the court documents. The leaders’ input brought the district attorney’s office together to investigate the matter further, despite Hirshowitz telling the office on August 12, 2022, that she did not want to pursue the complaint.
PENNSYLVANIA POLICE OFFICER ARRESTED FOR ALLEGED BUYING COCAINE: ‘IT’S EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTING’
Later that same August, the police chief reportedly held a mandatory staff meeting — to which the mayor and other village leaders were invited — to discuss the reports.
Ossining Police Department in New York (Police station Ossining/FB)
In October, the district attorney’s office obtained a warrant to search Hirshowitz’s phone and Apple iCloud account after speculation that eight of the screenshots came from her. Investigators claimed she was the likely source of the messages, and found that several phone numbers that sent the messages belonged to the police officer.
The court documents included a footnote explaining that investigators believe another person known to the district attorney’s office was connected to three other messages sent to Hirshowitz.
OFF-DUTY NYPD OFFICER CHARGED AFTER REPORTED WOMAN GAPPED AT YANKEE STADIUM HARD ROCK CAFÉ
“The WCDAO cannot pursue criminal charges in relation to these text messages at this time,” the footnote read, the paper said.
Court documents reviewed by the outlet do not name a specific officer who may have sent the messages, but a local attorney said his client, former Ossining police officer Louis Rinaldi, is the subject of an investigation.
Ossining Police Officer Emily Hirshowitz when she joined the force. (Police station Ossining/FB)
Rinaldi resigned last year after unrelated disciplinary charges. His lawyer said Rinaldi’s name came up during police questioning about the text messages.
Hirshowitz was released after her arrest last week and will appear in White Plains City Court on July 12, according to her attorney, Paul DerOhannesian.
“There is a lot of mystery and confusion surrounding the allegations in this case and we will evaluate when we learn more,” the lawyer told Journal News.
According to the newspaper, she was suspended with pay in June.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Ossining police, the OM, Rinaldi’s lawyer and Hirshowitz’s lawyer did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for additional comment on Sunday.
