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A police officer in New York was arrested on criminal charges after allegedly sending herself menacing text messages and then blaming her colleagues, according to the Westchester District Attorney's Office.
Ossining police officer Emily Hirshowitz was charged last Wednesday with three counts of first-degree filing a false instrument, a felony, 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 for two years in New Rochelle, the report said. In 2018, she received the Employee of the Year award from the Rotary Club of Ossining, which was celebrated by the police department on its own Facebook page.
In May of last year, Hirshowitz reportedly filed a complaint with the DA's office regarding harassing and anonymous texts she received on her personal phone. She claimed "that a fellow police officer or multiple police officers at my department are involved" and pushed for an investigation to expose the alleged perpetrator, according to the Journal News.
Ossining police officer Emily Hirshowitz receives award. (Ossining Police Department/FB)
She sent screenshots of the messages to investigators, which included notes urging her to commit suicide and others stating she is a "dumb [expletive]," "useless" and a "reject," according to the criminal complaint reviewed by the Westchester Journal News.
Ossining police and local leaders soon became involved and reached out to the DA to flag how "increasingly threatening" the "content" of the messages had become, according to the court documents. The leaders' input rallied the DA's office to continue investigating the matter despite Hirshowitz telling the office on Aug. 12, 2022, that she didn't want to continue pursuing the complaint.
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Later that same August, the police chief reportedly held a mandatory staff meeting – with the mayor and other village leaders invited to attend – to discuss the messages.
The Ossining Police Department in New York (Ossining Police Department/FB)
By October, the DA's office obtained a warrant to search Hirshowitz's phone and Apple iCloud account, following speculation that eight of the screenshots originated from her. Investigators alleged that she was the likely source of the messages, finding that several phone numbers that sent the messages were owned by the police officer.
The court documents contained a footnote explaining investigators believe another person who is known to the DA's office was connected to three other messages that were sent to Hirshowitz.
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"The WCDAO cannot pursue criminal charges related to these text messages at this time," the footnote read, according to the newspaper.
Court documents reviewed by the outlet do not cite any officer specifically 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. (Ossining Police Department/FB)
Rinaldi resigned last year following unrelated disciplinary charges. His attorney said Rinaldi's name came up during police interviews regarding the text messages.
Hirshowitz was released following her arrest last week and is scheduled to appear in White Plains City Court on July 12, according to her attorney, Paul DerOhannesian.
"There's a lot of mystery and confusion surrounding the allegations in this case and we'll evaluate as we learn more," the attorney told the Journal News.
She was suspended with pay in June, according to the outlet.
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The Ossining Police Department, the DA's office, Rinaldi's attorney and Hirshowitz's attorney did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for additional comment on Sunday.
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