AMHERST — A charge against an Amherst woman who allegedly threatened a newspaper journalist in summer 2018 has been dismissed after more than a year of court cases, jail time and mental health evaluations.

The misdemeanor charge of threatening to commit a crime against Amy I. Zuckerman, 65, which was amended from the original felony charge of making terroristic threats, was dismissed on the recommendation of the state Probation Service on Oct. 1. That decision came after Zuckerman was placed on three months’ pretrial probation on July 1, during which time she was not allowed to contact the news media, the specific reporter or the publication involved in the July 2018 incident, and that she had to continue with therapy, according to her court-appointed attorney, Ethan Yankowitz.

Zuckerman was arrested in July 2018 and arraigned in Wrentham District Court after police say she sent an email to a Walpole Times reporter that referenced shooting through the window of the newsroom. Police say the alleged threat was in response to the reporter asking to be removed from an email list.

Following a dangerousness hearing in Wrentham, Zuckerman was ordered held for 120 days at a women’s prison in Framingham. She was able to return to the Pioneer Valley after a Norfolk Superior Court judge released her without bail on several conditions, including to not contact any news media agency, not to have anyone contact any news media agencies on her behalf and to not use the internet. In addition, she was ordered to wear a GPS bracelet.

She was also evaluated for more than 50 days at the Solomon Carter Fuller Mental Health Center in Boston, where a release plan was created for her, according to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.

Zuckerman is an author, journalist and founder of the Hidden Tech networking association. The incident at the Walpole newspaper came the same day that the Daily Hampshire Gazette sought a trespass notice against Zuckerman following an incident at the newspaper’s 115 Conz St. office in Northampton. After Zuckerman was asked to leave the building due to her behavior, she wrote a lengthy email to staff members that raised additional concerns.

Zuckerman told the Amherst Town Council on Monday that she is now living in an apartment in Amherst. Two actions she is pursuing since her court case ended, she said, are asking the Human Rights Commission to have published news reports about arrests have a disclaimer that the charges could later be dropped, and asking the Fire Department to require all apartment buildings to have fire ladders to ease a tenant’s escape in case of emergency.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.]]>