City 911 Dispatcher Accused of Lying to Cops

Bethlehem 911 Center dispatcher Ashley Jolynn Wenbourne had an excuse for driving drunk and crashing a car into a fence during the early morning hours of February 25: She had just been the victim of a sexual assault, she told police.

But she didn’t tell police at the scene of accident, nor did she tell them while she was being processed for the drunk driving charge at the .

According to court records, she called the police desk after a cab took her home when she was released from the police station.

As it turns out, that story – and some others that Wenbourne told after coming back to the police station that day – was not true, police allege. Now she is facing two counts of making false reports to law enforcement and a charge of tampering with evidence.

It is unclear what Wenbourne’s job status is at this time.

A summons is being mailed to Wenbourne’s home from the office of , where Bethlehem police filed the charges Monday.

According to the affidavit of probable cause:

• Police responded to Valley Park South, near where Wenbourne, 25, lives, at 3:39 a.m. on February 25. There, they arrested Wenbourne on suspicion of DUI and took her to the police station for processing.

• After returning home, she called the police desk to say she had forgotten some details – namely that her boyfriend’s friend had sexually assaulted her before she left the house and drove drunk.

• At 7:30 a.m., Wenbourne was back at the police station being interviewed again. She told police that she had been out drinking with the two men the night before and that after they all came home, the friend touched her breasts and genitals. She said she was scared and left the apartment and got into the car to drive.

• Wenbourne also told police that her boyfriend was involved in heroin use, child pornography and prostitution.

• More interviews were conducted at the police station at 12:50 p.m. that same day. This time Wenbourne told police that she wanted nothing done about what she had reported earlier in the morning. “She said she wanted to set the record straight on why she was driving.”

• She also said “she was being spiteful,” when she told police about her boyfriend’s illegal activities.

• Police interviewed the boyfriend at 1:38 p.m. At that time, he told police that he saw Wenbourne expose herself to his friend and that he had seen no assault. The boyfriend also said that she had at times threatened him with calling the police and reporting that he had assaulted her.

• During the interview, the boyfriend started to receive text messages from Wenbourne, who was in another part of the police station. A police detective confronted Wenbourne and told her to stop.

• Then Det. Lt. Mark DiLuzio, who filed the charges, seized the phone, advising Wenbourne that he wanted to “view the texts concerning the entire incident.”

• Wenbourne asked DiLuzio about her job status. Then she said “she wanted nothing done, to drop everything, that she was in enough trouble and that it was nothing.”

• “Wenbourne is a police dispatcher, familiar with domestic violence crimes, DUI crimes and sexual assault crimes and their reporting,” the affidavit noted.

• She asked DiLuzio for her telephone back so she could call her father. The telephone number is in her phone and she needs it to get the number. The detective gave her the phone telling her not to delete anything or do anything else to the cell phone.

• When Wenbourne got the telephone back, she turned her back to DiLuzio and started pressing buttons. DiLuzio went around her to retrieve the phone. Wenbourne switched positions saying, “You don’t have to hover over me.”

• DiLuzio said he saw the boyfriend’s name on the phone. The detective said he asked Wenbourne what she deleted. She refused to answer.

• The phone was taken to the at DeSales University where it was determined that texts to her boyfriend had been deleted.