PITTSFIELD — A Cheshire woman who threatened public safety officials has received more jail time after admitting to charges of stalking and harassment.
Julie Ciskowski, 30, was sentenced Jan. 6 to 16 months in jail for sending threatening messages, phone calls and letters.
At the time, one of the targets of the threats, Nicole Woodard, was employed as ambulance director of the Dalton Fire District. The threats made reference to the town’s fire chief, Gerald J. Cahalan Jr., who received at least one message from Ciskowski at the town’s Flansburg Avenue fire station.
The nature of the harassment and stalking included texting, calling from blocked or unknown numbers, issuing threats and sending anonymous letters and food deliveries to their home, according to prosecutors and police reports.
Ciskowski also admitted to criminally harassing Cahalan’s wife and making annoying phone calls to both a Dalton firefighter and a man Ciskowski met on an online dating platform.
Court documents describe Ciskowski as demonstrating a pattern of harassing members of law enforcement. The charges were the result of a six-month investigation led by Dalton Police Sgts. Christopher Furlong and Bustin Buzzella.
Court papers noted that the investigation looked back into Ciskowski’s conduct over the past decade-plus. Investigators pulled reports from six different law enforcement agencies and executed six search warrants, determining that ten restraining orders had been taken out against Ciskowski.
After pleading guilty in Central Berkshire District Court before Judge Paul Smyth on Jan. 6, Ciskowski was taken into custody to serve out what remains of her sentence. Court documents show she has been in and out of pretrial custody since her arrest, including a stint of court-ordered treatment at the Worcester Recovery Center.
She received credit for 431 days time served, leaving her with about two months left of her punishment. Court papers from March 2019 list Ciskowski’s occupation as a member of the Cemetery Commission in Cheshire, a position the body’s present roster indicates she no longer holds.