ROCKLAND — A man who was a former Rockland resident pleaded guilty to calling a national suicide hotline in New York and falsely reporting that a woman was attempting to kill herself.

Ryan Clifford Guimond, 26, of Hallowell, was sentenced to 30 days in jail April 7 by Judge Susan Sparaco in Knox County Unified Court for charges of making a false public report and violating a condition of release.

According to the police affidavit filed by Rockland Police Officer Alex Gaylor, police and Rockland EMS were dispatched to a residence around 6 a.m. on March 16 after receiving a report that a woman was cutting herself and was overdosing on heroin.

When police arrived at the house, they woke up the victim and her two children. The victim told police that she had not contacted the crisis hotline and also had not cut herself or taken heroin.

Police then contacted the hotline and a supervisor verified the cell phone number where the text message had originated saying there was a suicide attempt. The number matched a number that police had in their records for Guimond, who used to live in Rockland, and was someone they were familiar with, according to the affidavit.

After police were unsuccessful in contacting Guimond, they contacted the Hallowell police who located him and arrested him on other charges, not outlined in the affidavit.  

Gaylor spoke to Guimond while he was in the Kennebec County Jail. Guimond initially denied having any knowledge of the incident and text messages, but later admitted that he had been drunk and “thought it would be a funny prank.”

Through a search warrant, police also found a text Guimond sent to the victim saying that “the prank wasn’t for you” and that he was “pranking the cops, lol,” according to court documents.

Reach Sarah Shepherd at news@penbaypilot.com