School superintendent harassed police chief candidate with slew of fake texts, feds say
A school superintendent accused of harassing a police chief candidate with nearly 100 texts sent from fake phone numbers was arrested April 6 in Massachusetts for lying to the FBI, Justice Department officials say.
The slew of messages threatening to reveal information that would hurt the Chicopee police chief candidate’s reputation forced them to withdraw their application, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts. Approximately 99 texts were sent to the victim, their spouse and the superintendent herself, a criminal complaint obtained by McClatchy News said.
Chicopee Public Schools Superintendent Lynn Clark, 51, of Belchertown, is also accused of casting suspicion on a member of her family, city workers and the victim’s colleagues by suggesting they potentially sent the threats, according to prosecutors.
Clark eventually admitted she wanted the police chief candidate “to get ‘knocked down a peg’” and told the FBI she sent the texts after a months-long investigation, the complaint said.
She said if the candidate was hired it would “negatively impact” her role as a school superintendent and believed the candidate “had achieved many accomplishments based on (her) work,” an FBI special agent wrote in the complaint.
McClatchy News has reached out to Clark and her attorneys for comment.
Clark is accused of making several false statements and downloading an application that hid her phone number and allowed her to pay for several fake numbers so she could send the texts, the attorney’s office said.
The case goes back to when Chicopee Mayor John L. Vieau reported to the FBI on Dec. 3 that he believed a police chief candidate withdrew their application because of threats made against them, according to the complaint.
As a result, Vieau delayed nominating a Chicopee police chief until it was “determined who threatened” the victim, the FBI agent wrote.
On Dec. 8, the victim said they began receiving several threatening texts in November and it led them to withdraw their application, according to prosecutors.
The victim said that some texts “contained private material that (they) had previously sent to Clark using his/her personal e-mail account” and that they believed they only shared with Clark such information, the complaint said.
Additionally, the victim reported Clark also received threats, including one that said “have [him/her] bow out” regarding the victim’s application, according to prosecutors.
Clark also showed the victim a text message from an anonymous number that included a photo of the victim and their spouse at their wedding, the complaint said.
The victim “believed that the only copy of this photograph was stored in his/her locked office, and he/she believed the picture did not exist in digital form,” the FBI agent wrote.
Clark voluntarily spoke with FBI agents on Dec. 6 and Jan. 11 about the texts received by herself and the victim and provided false statements by saying she didn’t know who they were from, according to the complaint.
On Jan. 11, she told FBI agents that she was worried the investigation “was harming her reputation” as superintendent and was “tearing the city apart,” the complaint said.
Ultimately, “phone and internet records revealed” Clark bought fake phone numbers through a burner application to send the threats, the news release said. She sent some of the threats to her school work phone as well as her personal phone, the complaint said.
Before Clark ultimately admitted to her role in sending the texts, she “attempted to dissuade (FBI) agents from pursuing the investigation any further” on Feb. 7, the complaint said.
It was also discovered that Clark “used similar burner apps in her capacity as the superintendent…to contact parents of students when they were unresponsive to calls,” the complaint said.
If Clark is convicted on the charge of making false statements, she faces a maximum five years in prison and a potential $10,000 fine, the news release said.
Clark was scheduled for her first court appearance in person at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time on April 6, a Justice Department spokesperson told McClatchy News.
Clark remains in her position as superintendent, according to the district’s website.
Chicopee is located roughly 90 miles west of Boston.
This story was originally published April 6, 2022 at 3:30 PM with the headline "School superintendent harassed police chief candidate with slew of fake texts, feds say."
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