PORT CHESTER — Riverhead Police have an open investigation into claims made by Dr. Aurelia Henriquez, the incoming Superintendent in Port Chester, that she was the target of threats and hate mail in her final days as Superintendent of the Riverhead Central School District.
Henriquez is scheduled to start July 1, 2021, the day after the end of her $224,400 buy-out package from her previous job in Long Island. The buy-out came under highly unusual circumstances.
Initial reports in June 2020 were that Dr. Henriquez had resigned from the Riverhead Central School District due to “certain irreconcilable differences and in the best interests of her family” but a Freedom of Information Request by Newsday in July 2020, revealed that her contract was bought out by the District for under a quarter-million dollars.
Henriquez’s departure came after the 2020-21 proposed budget was voted down in June 2020 by a wide margin. A $96.5 million facilities bond resolution failed in February 2020. Budget and Bond votes are often seen as a “confidence vote” in district leadership.
By the end of August 2020, the story of Dr. Henriquez’s departure from Riverhead took a bizarre turn.
Denise Civiletti, writing for Riverhead Local, reported that a week before Dr. Aurelia Henriquez was “unexpectedly resigned” by the Riverhead Board of Education, she told Suffolk County Police she had been targeted by threats and hate mail.
Suffolk County Police referred the matter to the Suffolk County Police Hate Crimes Unit.
Days later notes were received in the mail at Superintendent Dr. Henriquez’s office in Riverhead, which shared the notes with the Suffolk County Police Hate Crimes Unit.
“This isn’t a straightforward hate mail investigation and releasing any information would be premature,” said Riverhead Police Chief David Hegermiller, somewhat cryptically.
Hegermiller, a member of the Riverhead Anti-Bias Task Force admitted he did not share a 2018 incident with the task force.
Civiletti reported Henriquez telling Riverhead Police in August 2018 she received a “very similar note” to the 2020 notes.
Henriquez found the first note on the windshield of her vehicle, parked outside her Patchogue home, at about 7 a.m. on Monday, June 22, according to an incident report obtained from the Suffolk County Police Department through a Freedom of Information Law request. The note was accompanied by the head and arm of a brown-skinned doll with long black hair described by police as a “Barbie doll.”
“Beaner! Go!! Resign!! You will suffer if you won’t leave We hate your kind!” was handwritten on the envelope. Inside were the doll head and arm, according to the police report.
Henriquez called the SCPD Fifth precinct that morning to report the incident, the police report states. A detective from the Suffolk County Police Hate Crimes Unit responded to the Fifth Precinct to interview Henriquez. The envelope and doll parts were taken into evidence, the report states.
On Thursday of that week, two other notes arrived by U.S. Mail in the superintendent’s office, according to the police reports. Both were handwritten and contained similar messages.
Patchogue is 24 miles away from Riverhead.
According to Civiletti, the Riverhead Police Department’s policy is to keep the Riverhead Anti-Bias Task Force “apprised of bias incidents that come to the department’s attention” but that did not happen with the 2018 letter.
Riverhead Anti-Bias Task Force chairperson Connie Lassandro told Civiletti “the task force was not informed of the 2018 incident” but Riverhead Police were treating the 2018 letter as an open investigation.
Riverhead Police Chief David Hegermiller is a member of the Riverhead Anti-Bias Task Force.
After the June 2020 incidents, Riverhead Police referred all the notes — 2018 and 2020 — to the Suffolk County Police Hate Crimes Unit, according to Civiletti.
Suffolk County Police closed their investigation “due to the complainant’s unwillingness to cooperate.”
Henriquez declined to comment to the Riverhead Local, issuing the following statement:
“To safeguard my family’s privacy and safety, I wasn’t interested in pursuing this any further.”
Civiletti was unable to determine it the bias incident reports were provided to the Riverhead Central School District.
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