Monday, May 3, 2010

Authorities arrested a 29-year-old San Jacinto woman who investigators said interrupted police and fire radio communications and made threats over the air during a two-day period, said Hemet police Lt. Mark Richards in a news release. Irene Marie Levy was taken into custody early Monday at her mobile home in the 900 block of South Grand Avenue, Richards said. Levy was booked at the Hemet Police Department Jail on suspicion of making terrorist threats; false report of a bomb threat; and maliciously interrupting, disrupting, impeding, or interfering with the transmission of a public safety radio frequency. Levy’s bail is set at $50,000, Richards said. The incident is not related to the recent attacks on Gang Task Force officers or other recent attacks on law enforcement officers in Hemet, Richards said. According to Richards, Levy, who is an Amateur Radio technician, was randomly broadcasting on CalFire and Hemet Police radio frequencies from Saturday evening until moments before she was arrested at her residence. In the 30 hours of radio frequency interruptions by Levy, she made at least one bomb threat and many references to the death of police officers and fire personnel, Richards said. Levy’s threats and antics interrupted radio communications during a CalFire search and rescue call, a vegetation fire, and a major traffic accident mutual aid scene in Hemet on Saturday evening, Richards said. The interruptions continued into the early morning hours of Sunday when Levy made the bomb threat. Levy continued making threats on Hemet Police and CalFire radio frequencies all of Sunday afternoon and evening. CalFire and Riverside County Fire communications technicians started the task of trying to locate the source of the frequency interruptions on CalFire frequencies late Saturday evening. The communications technicians deployed Direction Finding equipment to triangulate Levy’s transmissions. Levy expanded her threatening transmissions to the Hemet Police radio frequency on Sunday morning, Richards said, and later that evening Riverside police investigators were requested to assist because their investigators have had some experience in these types of investigations. Richards said Riverside has similar radio frequency direction finding equipment as the CalFire communications technicians. On Sunday evening, Richards said, Levy boasted that the police would never find her and she disguised her voice as a male adult during all of her transmissions. Late Sunday evening, Levy’s location was pinpointed to her mobile home. Just after midnight, law enforcement officers from Hemet Police, CalFire, and Riverside Police approached Levy’s mobile home just as she made one final transmission on the Hemet Police frequency, Richards said. Investigators arrived at her front door just as she finished her last transmission. Hemet Police investigators seized 11 radios, seven radio frequency scanners, radio frequency lists, computer equipment, and other miscellaneous radio equipment from Levy’s home. Police also seized Levy’s Ham radio technician’s license issued to her by the FCC in September of 2009, Richards said.