Authorities announced the arrests of Shane Turner, 33, of Cliffside Park, and Nina Walsh, 32, of Hawthorne, on charges of Terroristic Threats and False Public Alarm.
According to police, on June 22, 2016, a telephone caller using technology to anonymize caller ID information placed a bomb threat phone call to a commercial establishment in Edgewater, triggering a response from the Edgewater Police Department and the Edgewater Fire Department, as well as assets from the Bergen County Sheriff’s Department. First responders subsequently determined that the bomb threat was a hoax.
A subsequent investigation into the anonymized phone call was led by members of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Cyber Crimes Unit and revealed that Turner and Walsh placed the phone call to cause an evacuation of the affected area.
Both Turner and Walsh surrendered to detectives from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office on Monday, June 19, 2017.
They were each charged with one count of Terroristic Threats, in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:12-3(a), a third-degree crime, and one count of making a False Public Alarm, in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:33-3(a), a third-degree crime.
After being processed, they both were released pending a first appearance at the Bergen County Central Judicial Processing Court on Monday, July 3, 2017, at 9 a.m.
Prosecutor Grewal states that these charges are merely accusations and that the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.