Scranton police charged a Delaware County man with making terroristic threats against his former girlfriend and a man.
Richard Frisby, 47, of Lansdowne, also was charged Tuesday with witness intimidation of the two victims.
According to a criminal complaint and affidavit:
Frisby was arrested Oct. 5 for assaulting his then-girlfriend, Erica Vought, at her residence on Crown Avenue. He was released on bail with a restriction of having no contact with her. But Frisby immediately called and messaged her, and she blocked his number.
On Sunday, Vought was at James Pasco’s residence on Cherry Street when Frisby made repeated calls to her from an unknown phone number. Frisby showed up there at 5:30 p.m. looking for Vought, but Pasco eventually got him to leave.
Frisby then continued to make repeated calls to her and leave threatening voice messages, including that Frisby had found her via a cellphone “ping”; he had a gun and was coming for her; stating “if that dude want to die over you, so be it”; and that he didn’t care about police getting involved.
Vought and Pasco went to the police station Sunday to report the threats. As Vought played the voice messages for police, she was visibly upset, shaking and extremely anxious, saying, “He’s going to kill me, he really is.”
While she was at the police station, Frisby continued to call her, and she put him on speakerphone. Scranton police Officer Melissa Forsette spoke with Frisby and he asked “where you at?” Forsette told him to come to 100 S. Washington Ave., which is the address of police headquarters. Frisby continued to leave voice messages that “became increasingly threatening” toward the victims and they remained at police headquarters for their safety.
Police pinged Frisby’s phone, which showed he was at the front of the police station. Police searched the area and found him at a pizza shop at 900 S. Washington Ave., where he was arrested and taken into custody.
The charges filed Tuesday are felonies. Court records indicate Frisby remains at Lackawanna County Prison in lieu of $200,000 bail, and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 21 before Magisterial District Judge Paul Keeler.
Meanwhile, the charges in the Oct. 5 incident also remain pending, including strangulation, a felony; simple assault, possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, all misdemeanors; and harassment, a summons, according to court documents.