By Lauren Liebhaber
The Charlotte Observer
ZANESVILLE, Ohio — An Ohio woman has pleaded guilty to calling 911 hundreds of times for fake emergencies and tying up resources, which ultimately resulted in the death of another person, officials said.
The 34-year-old Zanesville woman pleaded guilty July 12 to felony disrupting public services, felony making false alarms, and 25 counts of misdemeanor misuse of 911 systems, according to a July 15 news release from the Muskingum County Prosecutor’s Office.
The woman called 911 almost 400 times since 2020 “complaining of various illnesses,” calling multiple times each week and sometimes several times a day, officials said.
“Ambulances and first responders transporting Kennedy for nonexistent emergencies were unavailable to service those experiencing actual emergencies,” the prosecutor’s office said.
On one occasion, the South Zanesville Fire Department could not respond to a call about a person unable to breathe because they were transporting the woman for a fake call, according to the prosecutor’s office. That person later died, officials said.
Hospital staff “repeatedly informed” the woman that she had no medical issues, officials said.
Officials said, “taxpayers funded each transport and visit through Medicaid.”
“Obviously some type of check or balance needs to exist so that this type of abuse is more quickly reported by EMS to law enforcement because 350 pointless ambulance runs is absolutely ridiculous,” Muskingum County Assistant Prosecutor John Litle said.
She will be sentenced at a later date, according to officials.
Zanesville is about a 55-mile drive east from Columbus.
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