Woman charged in filing bogus claims of abuse
Prospect Park police have charged a 63-year-old Norwood woman with making false claims of abuse to Interboro school officials using the Safe2SaySomething reporting app that allows students to report threats and issues to authorities anonymously.
Police have charged Theresa M. Long with making unsworn falsification to authorities and making false reports. Both are misdemeanors.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, Interboro Resource Officer Nicholas Denton was investigating a report made through the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Safe2SaySomething anonymous platform that was sent on Dec. 13 to officials at Interboro School District.
The submitter stated they had witnessed an interaction between a male staff member and a ninth-grade female student in which sexual comments were made, causing the student to run away crying.
The reporting party claimed to be a senior female athlete at the high school, and as a result an investigation was launched into the staffer.
Police interviewed multiple students but none admitted to being the anonymous reporter, nor the student mentioned.
Something was amiss
At that point, police suspected a fraudulent complaint, and applied for a search warrant for the attorney general to supply the IP address for the computer that the reporting person used.
The resulting information showed the computer was a public computer at the Norwood Public Library, but a camera showing the computer was not operating at the time of the report to show the person who made the claim.
On Jan. 18, officials received another report from the same person, making additional charges of inappropriate sexual conversations between the same male staff member and a ninth-grade girl. Police discovered inconsistencies in the report and applied for an additional warrant for information on the reporting party.
That information again came back to the public computers at the Norwood Public Library, and this time the camera was working and showed a woman making the report, closing tabs and signing off the computer.
As she walked away, she turned and faced the camera. That woman was identified as Long, police said.
It unravels
At that point in the investigation, Officer Nicholas Denton and Interboro Superintendent Bernadette C. Reiley went to Long’s home and were invited in to speak with her.
According to the affidavit, Long began to confess to the superintendent for having “done something terrible.”
In an additional interview at police headquarters, Long confessed to making the two false reports against the male staff, confirmed they were false and said he was “a good man.”
Long said she was familiar with the safe2saysomething platform from her time as an educator herself.
She denied seeing a yellow and red warning above the submit button stating deliberately providing false information or using the system to harass someone may lead to criminal prosecution.
Long was not an educator in the Interboro School District, Prospect Park police confirmed.
Officials at the state attorney general’s office concurred with moving forward on the charges, the affidavit said.
An April 24 hearing before Magisterial District Judge Jack D. Lippart has been scheduled.