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Teen faces over 73 counts for ‘swatting’ calls
Call shut down Wis. highway, sheriff says
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A Wisconsin sheriff said a fake SWAT call his department handled in May 2018 was no laughing matter.
Sheriff Dale Schmidt of the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office said the call – that a city teen is charged with making – forced the shutdown of a major highway for two hours and tied up his resources, which were needed for an ice rescue at the same time.
The homeowner at the address was taken into custody before it was discovered the call was a hoax, Schmidt said.
The teen, David Dorbish, listed as 16 years old in court documents, is in the Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center’s detention area facing more than 73 counts in a series of criminal complaints for a series of “swatting” calls over a year and a half.
He is accused of calling 911 in several cities to say someone was held hostage at gunpoint or some other type of emergency that would prompt a Special Weapons and Tactics team deployment.
According to Associated Press reports, the FBI estimates roughly 400 cases of swatting occur annually, with some using caller ID spoofing to disguise their number.
The charges were filed in March, according to court documents. The documents charge Dorbish with making calls in January, February, March, August and September of last year.
Dorbish faces felony counts of making false alarms, inducing panic, identity fraud, possessing criminal tools, extortion and unlawful possession of or use of a hoax weapon of mass destruction as well as misdemeanor counts of making false alarms, attempted inducing panic and telecommunications harassment.
Juvenile Prosecutor Anissa Modarelli said the charges filed in Mahoning County were filed after consultation with other jurisdictions. It was decided it would be better to have the charges filed here, since Dorbish is accused of making the calls from this county.
She also said there are still several other jurisdictions she is waiting to hear back from to decide if they want her to add more charges.
Detective Sgt. Ron Barber of the city police department, the lead investigator on the case, said Dorbish is suspected of making calls to places as far away as California. Some of the states include Florida, Indiana and New Jersey, Barber said.
“It’s all over the map,” Barber said. “It’s a mess.”
One of the calls was made in 2018 to Putnam County, N.Y. Capt. Lisa Ortolano of the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office said Dorbish is accused of calling 911 and saying someone was in a home with a gun and threatening to shoot someone. A SWAT team assembled but later determined the call was a hoax, Ortolano said.
Ortolano said investigators there managed to trace the number used to make the call back to Youngstown. She said they cooperated with other law-enforcement agencies who had similar calls, then had to file warrants for phone records.
The process was lengthy, she said.
“This did not happen overnight,” Ortolano said.
Ortolano said Dorbish is a suspect in a similar incident in her jurisdiction in 2017.
Schmidt said in his incident, the call stretched the resources of his department thin, as almost all personnel on duty responded to the SWAT call. When the ice-rescue call came in, he had to scramble to get enough people to that call. He said the rescue call ended with no injuries.
Schmidt said he hopes the charges will deter anyone in the future from pulling the same prank.
“It sets an example for someone who might think this is a good idea,” Schmidt said.
In recent months, the penalties for those sentenced in swatting cases have been severe.
Last Friday, a California man was sentenced to 20 years in prison for making bogus emergency calls to authorities across the U.S., including one that led police to fatally shoot a Kansas man after a dispute between two online players over a $1.50 bet in the “Call of Duty: WWII” video game.