(John Ransom, Headline USA) A public school superintendent faced a day in court Thursay after being accused of trying to blackmail a police-chief candidate in the city of Chicopee, Massachusetts.
My hometown is wild. This lady (who used to be my principal) apparently bought an app to send threatening text messages while disguising her phone number and then lied to the feds about it.
— Kassy Dillon (@KassyDillon) April 6, 2022
Federal prosecutors alleged that Chicopee Public Schools Superintendent Lynn Clark, 51, lied to the FBI about text messages that she sent using the Burner phone app, threatening to expose personally embarrassing information if the unnamed candidate didn’t drop out of the hiring process, according to Springfield-based ABC affiliate WGGB.
“It is alleged that a total of approximately 99 threatening messages were sent from fictitious phone numbers purchased through a mobile app,” said a statement by U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.
“Phone and internet records revealed that these numbers were allegedly purchased by Clark and that the purchased numbers sent each of the threatening messages,” the statement said.
Clark apparently shared information in the text messages that the victim had only shared with Clark, which is one way the FBI was able to focus on her early in the investigation, said the Daily Hampshire Gazette.
Prosecutors said that, in interviews, Clark initially denied sending the message and cast suspicion on people including “other City employees, the victim’s colleagues and a member of Clark’s own family.”
Court documents say that Clark wanted the candidate “knocked down a peg,” and was worried that if the candidate were successful it would be bad for her position with the school district, WGGB reported.
Following the arraignment, Chicopee Mayor John Vieau said that the school committee will work together to decide who will run the schools, pending the outcome of the trial.
The judge released Clark on her own recognizance with the order that she cannot contact anybody involved in the case.
A hearing is scheduled for April 27, which could be superseded by a grand jury indictment said theDaily Hampshire Gazette.
