The former superintendent of Chicopee Public Schools in western Massachusetts pleaded guilty in connection to a vicious campaign of threats against a candidate to be the city police chief.

Lynn Clark, 53, of Belchertown pleaded guilty to two counts of making false statements in federal court in Springfield today. Federal Judge Mark G. Mastoianni scheduled sentencing for April 30. The charge carries a sentence of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

Clark was initially charged with sending 99 threatening messages to a candidate for chief of the Chicopee Police Department in November and December 2021, when the city was hiring for the role. As a result of Clark’s campaign of threats, the candidate withdrew from consideration.

Clark used an app on her phone which supplied “burner” phone numbers she could use to send harassing messages to the candidate and the candidate’s spouse, according to court documents. The messages included a photo of the couple that the victim said was not posted digitally anywhere and could only be found in the candidate’s office.

The city’s mayor told the FBI that he believed the candidate was the subject of threats and that the candidates withdrawal “unfairly affected the integrity of the selection process,” the Herald reported at the time of Clark’s arrest in April of 2022.

Clark also used the app to send herself threatening messages as a way to cover her tracks, the feds say. She met with the FBI in February of 2022 and told them she didn’t know who was sending the threats, accused another member of her family by name as the possible culprit and told agents it was best for everyone involved if they closed the investigation with “no finding.”

Agents then confronted her with their evidence she was lying and then she allegedly admitted to the whole thing, adding that she felt that if the candidate were elected to chief of police it would negatively impact her job and that she wanted the candidate to get “knocked down a peg.”