By Timothy Bolger and Christopher Twarowski
Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano said investigators are looking for a hacker that he said created sexually explicit text messages sent from his cell phone to several women.
WCBS-TV New York reported Saturday night that they obtained copies of the sexts, but Mangano later said a hacker had used his cell phone number to fake the messages. Hours after the report aired, police issued a news release early Sunday morning saying Mangano requested a probe into what authorities described as a “spoofing attack” 10 days ago.
“I am outraged at this smear attempt and will take legal action against the sick individual who has sought to assassinate my character and hurt my family,” the married Bethpage Republican said in a statement. “While elected officials are used to being confronted with falsehoods, whoever fabricated this outrageous social media attack committed a crime.”
The New York Daily News posed the question: “Is he the suburban Carlos Danger?” That was the pseudonym used by disgraced ex-U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Queens), who resigned in 2011 after being caught sexting women and claiming he was a hacking victim before later coming clean.
CBS didn’t name any of the women who received the messages, but police identified one of them as Karin Caro, founder of Blue Chip Marketing, a local public relations consulting firm. Police said that Mangano first learned of the situation from Caro, who investigators also described as a victim, after one of the messages was publicly shared on her Twitter page.
“Caro has stated that she never had such communication with the County Executive nor does she have his cell phone number,” police said in the news release. “Both parties have no record of such text or tweet.”
CBS reported that some of the sexts were too explicit to report. But they did broadcast some of the messages, including one in which the county exec appears to tell a woman: “I miss being alone with you.”
In another, the woman wrote: “I want you to (blank) my brains out even if it’s in my car again,” according to CBS, which said Mangano’s apparent reply was: “Sorry left early. Something came up.”
“This is totally fabricated,” Mangano tells the Press on Valentine’s Day. “It’s a lie. I’ve made a complaint with the police department.
“This is absolutely outrageous,” he continues. “It’s ridiculous. It’s so hurtful.”
Intelligence Unit and Electronics Squad detectives are continuing the investigation.
