The superintendent of the Chicopee (Mass.) school district has been charged with lying to the FBI about messages she allegedly sent to a police chief candidate.
Lynn Clark, 51, has been charged with one count of making false statements, Western Mass News reports.
Hours after the charges were announced Wednesday, the Chicopee School Committee held an emergency meeting and voted 8-3 to place Clark on paid administrative leave, effective immediately. The school committee also asked her to resign, WCVB-TV reports.
Prosecutors say that in December 2021, Chicopee was looking to hire a police chief. Police were told that one of the candidates was receiving threats intended to force the candidate to withdraw the job application.
The victim reportedly received text messages from unknown numbers containing threats to expose information that would cause the victim reputational harm. The victim then withdrew the application and the city delayed the hiring.
“It is alleged that a total of approximately 99 threatening messages were sent from fictitious phone numbers purchased through a mobile app. 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 U.S. Attorney’s office said.
Clark allegedly denied sending the messages on several occasions and cast suspicion onto other people. She also allegedly suggested that the messages could have been sent by other city employees, the victim’s colleagues, and a member of Clark’s family.
Clark reportedly later admitted that she sent the messages.
Court documents said she wanted the candidate for police chief to get “knocked down a peg” because she believed if the victim became police chief, it could negatively affect her position as school superintendent.
