By O’Ryan Johnson
The Boston Herald
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BOSTON — An EMT dispatcher who sent three work-related messages to a computer where his ex-wife sat at her job as a 911 dispatcher was arraigned for violation of a restraining order, police and prosecutors said.
EMT Mike Fitzpatrick was released without bail following his appearance yesterday in Roxbury District Court. The criminal charges stem from the EMT’s sending the messages to direct an ambulance to a wounded man, EMS Superintendent Richard Serino has said.
The restraining order prohibits contact with his ex-wife.
“The decision is ultimately up to the courts,’' said Boston EMS spokeswoman Jennifer Mehigan. “The messages were reviewed by the department members and deemed to be appropriate.’'
Fitzpatrick and his ex-wife have worked together in the same building and on the same floor for the past eight years. She has a permanent restraining order against him.
On February 10, both were working when a detail cop radioed that a man had injured his leg. An ambulance and cruiser responded to the address, but could not locate a victim.
Boston police said Fitzpatrick sent three messages regarding the incidents from his computer to one used by police dispatchers, and where his ex-wife was sitting.
Boston police Superintendent Daniel Linskey said he looked at the messages that night and all appeared work-related. However he also consulted state law, as well as five lawyers, before deciding to arrest Fitzpatrick. Boston police Commissioner Edward Davis, who was also called, later decided that rather than arrest Fitzpatrick, which would require jail, to summons him to court.