Ossining police officer who complained of harassing texts sent them herself: DA
An Ossining police officer who reported being the victim of harassing text messages she claimed came from colleagues has been arrested on criminal charges accusing her of sending the texts herself.
Emily Hirshowitz appeared at the Westchester District Attorney's Office in White Plains on Wednesday and was charged by investigators with three counts of first-degree filing a false instrument, a felony that accuses her of submitting a false report with the intent to defraud, and four counts of third-degree falsely reporting an incident, a misdemeanor.
She was released to appear in White Plains City Court on July 12, according to Paul DerOhannesian, an Albany criminal defense lawyer who was retained this week to represent Hirshowitz.
"There's a lot of mystery and confusion surrounding the allegations in this case and we'll evaluate as we learn more," he said.
The criminal complaint filed in city court details an exhaustive dive by investigators into phone records related to the text messages Hirshowitz purportedly received over several months.
On May 4, 2022, according to the court document, Hirshowitz made a written complaint to the DA's Office of anonymous, harassing text messages to her personal cellphone from multiple unknown numbers. She alleged "that a fellow police officer or multiple police officers at my department are involved" and she was hopeful the investigation would uncover who was sending the messages.
She followed that up in July and August by sending to the investigators screen grabs showing further text messages she had received. The messages, some with expletive-laced rants, called her "dumb (expletive)," "useless," "reject" and urged her to kill herself, according to the criminal complaint.
The issue prompted village and police officials to reach out to the DA's Office on several occasions to express their concern about the "increasingly threatening content" of the text messages, according to the court document. As a result, investigators continued their probe even though Hirshowitz told them Aug. 12 that she no longer wanted to pursue the complaint.
On Aug. 23, police Chief Kevin Sylvester convened a mandatory meeting of all members of the department at which the text messages were discussed. According to his memo announcing the meeting, he was inviting the mayor, village manager and other village officials to attend.
According to the court document, investigators suspected that Hirshowitz was the source of the messages in eight of the screen grabs. They got a search warrant for her phone and Apple iCloud account in October. A review of those showed she was the likely sender of the text messages and that she would have known that the screen grabs contained false information about who had sent the messages. The court document shows they found that several of the phone numbers that sent the texts were controlled by Hirshowitz.
In a footnote, the criminal complaint indicates that the investigation determined that a different individual known to the DA's Office was linked to the text messages on three of the screen grabs Hirshowitz gave police on July 1, 2022. The specifics of those texts were not made clear and it was not known whether they are being further investigated.
"The WCDAO cannot pursue criminal charges related to these text messages at this time," the footnote read.
The court document does not say whether Hirshowitz or anyone else had identified any specific officers who might have been sending the messages. But Michael Santangelo, a lawyer for former Ossining police Officer Louis Rinaldi, said his client was a focus of the investigation.
Rinaldi resigned last spring after he had faced unrelated disciplinary charges. Santangelo said that Rinaldi's name came up in several interviews of police officers as part of the internal investigation into the text messages.
An email last June from the chief of the DA's Public Integrity Bureau to Sylvester, obtained by The Journal News/lohud, cited a criminal investigation into Rinaldi and sought the former officer's disciplinary file. The email does not address the nature of the investigation but Santangelo said the timing suggests it related to the text messages. He declined to comment further.
Hirshowitz was suspended with pay last week as a result of the investigation but Ossining police, the village manager and Mayor Rika Levin have not responded to inquiries and the DA's Office has declined to comment.
Hirshowitz, 36, lives in Peekskill. She joined the Ossining Police Department in 2016 after two years as a New Rochelle police officer. In 2018, she was honored as an Employee of the Year by the Rotary Club of Ossining.
Sylvester ignored a reporter's messages last week and this week has been out of the country and did not respond to text messages. A memo he sent the staff on Friday indicated he would be out of the office through July 2. Captain Brendan Donohue, in charge of the department in the chief's absence, has not responded to messages and would not see a reporter at headquarters Wednesday following Hirshowitz's arrest.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: DA: Ossining cop sent herself nasty texts she blamed on other officers
