TWINSBURG, Ohio (WJW) – The FOX 8 I-Team has found police filed criminal charges against a former 911 dispatcher, not for a call she took, but for a call she made.
A recording shows that last month a Twinsburg woman got a call from Twinsburg police.
“Karen, it’s the Twinsburg Police Department calling. Can I have your attention?” the caller said.
Karen Clinton told us the call started her heart racing.
“It took me to my knees. It really did. It terrified me,” she said.
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“Do I have your full attention?” the caller continued.
“Yeah, what’s wrong? Wait, do I need to sit down?” Karen asked.
“No, you don’t have to sit down. Everything’s fine,” the caller went on.
So no emergency and no crisis, but what Karen heard left her stunned.
The dispatcher said Karen had won a prize, telling her she had called the police 183 times in the last 15 years. The police department had conducted hundreds of traffic details on her street, including over a thousand traffic stops.
Karen admits that she’s a neighborhood watchdog, but she didn’t think she deserved this.
“So, you win the prize. It’s called the booby prize. You are the dumbest person to call the police department on a repeated basis. So, thank you for being a resident of this city and have a wonderful life,” the caller said.
“This behavior can’t be tolerated. It certainly can’t be tolerated in the city of Twinsburg. Can’t be tolerated in any community,” Karen told us.
Karen complained to city hall.
The city told the I-Team that the dispatcher no longer works at the Twinsburg Police Department.
Twinsburg Mayor Sam Scaffidi issued a statement, saying, in part, “We take these matters very seriously and will continue to do so if something this unfortunate happens again.”
Loretta Nash appeared in Stow Municipal Court on Thursday. She is pleading not guilty and she is free on bond. A trial date has been set for September.
The charges accuse the former dispatcher of making the call to “harass, intimidate or abuse.”
We called Nash for comment. As of deadline late Friday, we had not heard back.
Karen tells us she had experience working as a police dispatcher many years ago. Now, she just doesn’t want anything like this to happen to anyone else.
“To do that is cruel. It’s cruel,” she said.
https://fox8.com/news/listen-former-dispatcher-faces-charges-for-cruel-call-made-to-citizen/
