AMHERST — An Amherst woman was arrested Saturday morning at the police station on a Walpole Police warrant charging her with making a terroristic threat, according to Amherst Police.
Amy I. Zuckerman, 64, of 16 Berkshire Terrace, was arrested at 11:42 a.m. and held for the weekend at the Hampshire Jail and House of Correction in Northampton on $10,000 bail pending her arraignment Monday in Wrentham District Court, Amherst Detective Marcus Humber said.
Humber said Zuckerman was arrested following an incident in which she made explicit threats toward an employee at the Walpole Times newspaper.
The MetroWest Daily News in Framingham reported Sunday that an employee at the Walpole newspaper on Friday received an email threatening him with physical harm after requesting that he be removed from an email list used by Zuckerman.
“This was a very specific threat of physical harm that not only put the journalist who received it in jeopardy, but the other people in that office as well, which is why we’re taking it very seriously,” Anne Brennan, editor-in-chief of the MetroWest Daily News and Milford Daily News, told the MetroWest newspaper.
Brennan oversees several weekly papers, including seven weeklies produced by the Walpole bureau, which was temporarily closed following the threat. Lisa Strattan, vice president of news for GateHouse New England told the MetroWest Daily News that employees would be working in different offices until a security guard is hired for the Walpole office, according to the newspaper’s report.
The incident at the Walpole newspaper came the same day 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 concern. Michael Rifanburg, publisher of the newspaper, declined to comment further on the incident.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
