By John Ashbury
The Press Enterprise
SAN JACINTO, Calif. — A San Jacinto woman suspected of interrupting emergency radio broadcasts with threatening remarks over the weekend was arrested early Monday, Hemet police said.
Irene Marie Levy, 29, of San Jacinto, was taken into custody at her mobile home in the 900 block of South Grand Avenue on suspicion of criminal threats.
Police said Levy, who is a ham radio operator, made a bomb threat and talked about the deaths of police and firefighters during 30 hours of radio transmissions ending just before officers arrived at her home.
Many of the broadcasts contained rambling threats directed at Hemet police, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department and particular police units.
“A lot of it was, ‘Piggy, piggy, piggy, die, die, die,’ ” Hemet police Sgt. Mark Richards said. “There was no threat to kill any specific person.”
Police believe Levy used her home computer to reprogram a handheld radio to broadcast on the emergency frequencies. The messages overrode Hemet police and Cal Fire dispatcher transmissions, causing emergency personnel to have to repeat broadcasts, Richards said.
The threats, which started Saturday night, interfered with emergency broadcasts in a fatal traffic collision in Hemet, a search-and-rescue call Sunday and a brush fire that afternoon near Beaumont. One of the broadcasts was a bomb threat early Sunday, police said.
The radio transmissions were not connected to five previous threats and attacks on Hemet police and the Hemet-San Jacinto Valley Gang Task Force, Richards said. Since December, officers have received death threats and been targeted in assassination attempts.
Levy, described as a stay-at-home mom with one child, is suspected of disguising her voice as a man broadcasting on Cal Fire and Hemet police frequencies from Saturday night until she was arrested early today, Richards said.
“She doesn’t like the Police Department or Cal Fire. I don’t know any other motivations than that,” he said.
On Sunday evening, “Levy boasted that the police would never find her,” Richards said.
Minutes after her last transmission Monday, police found her still holding a radio, he said. She admitted to broadcasting the messages and had been listening to herself on several other radios, Richards said.
At the home, police found 11 radios, seven frequency scanners, frequency lists, computer equipment and Levy’s ham radio technician’s license issued by the FCC in September 2009, Richards said.
Levy was booked at the Larry Smith Detention Center in lieu of $25,000 bond on suspicion of making terrorist threats, falsely reporting a bomb threat and maliciously interrupting, disrupting, impeding or interfering with a transmission of a public radio frequency.
Levy’s mother, Wanda, was tearful when contacted at Levy’s home Monday. The arrest is “totally out of context for her. She has no reason to hate the police,” she said.
Her daughter had mental problems about eight years ago when she threatened suicide and acted out in other ways, she said. Levy’s mother declined to give her last name.
Riverside County fire communications officials used tracking equipment to triangulate the transmissions, but were unsuccessful because the threats were transmitted sporadically. Riverside police were asked to step in Sunday, using advanced equipment.
Levy and her husband, Mike Levy, both are licensed by the Federal Communications Commission to operate ham radios. Police said they confiscated her license.
Ronald Baker, of Hemet, is president of the Lee DeForest Amateur Radio Club of Hemet. He said he has known Irene Levy for only a short time but has known Mike Levy for 10 years.
If the charges are true, “this from his wife is most unusual,” Baker said. “She seemed like a normal, down-to-earth person.”
Mike Levy, he said, “is a stickler for the law. He’s been involved with police, fire and ambulance assistance. He’s been a decent person.”
Such instances of ham radio abuse are rare, Baker said. He’s been an operator since 1952 and has seen such instances once every two or three years — and never so close to home, he said.
In times of disaster, ham operators often are relied upon to provide a backup emergency radio system. Other times, operators just spend time talking with one another. Baker said he expects a lot of chatter regarding Levy’s arrest.
Copyright 2010 The Press Enterprise, Inc.