NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Stephanie Lombardo, age 34, of New Rochelle is facing three separate counts of Aggravated Harassment — Second Degree, all Class A Misdemeanors.
The charges relate to an alleged extramarital affair between Lombardo and David Lacher, age 68, of New Rochelle.
Lacher did not respond to a request for comment on his personal relationship with Lombardo.
Lombardo was arraigned remotely on video from a holding cell in the courthouse building before Judge Jared Rice. She was represented by high-profile attorney Stacey Richman.
Lombardo pleaded not guilty.
Rice converted 6 ex-parte Orders of Protection to Temporary Orders of Protection for Lacher, a current board member and four members of their family.
Lombardo was told to not contact David Lacher or any of the other persons named in the Temporary Orders of Protection and to not say anything negative about Lacher.
Lombardo was released on her own recognizance and is due back in court on May 27.
According to Lombardo, she was first approached by Lacher six years ago on Facebook. The relationship turned physical two years ago after Lacher represented Lombardo in a legal matter.
On April 10, 2021, Lombardo said she became convinced that Lacher was cheating on his wife with women other than her. She confronted Lacher in front of a Lacher family member in a public setting.
On April 12 Lacher filed a complaint with the New Rochelle Police Department against Lombardo.
In his police statement, Lacher said he wished to pursue criminal charges against Stephanie Lombardo for harassing him and his family. Lacher stated he knew Lombardo, and that she was calling his cell phone, his home phone and his work phone on April 10, April 11, and April 12. Lacher stated the numerous calls and voicemails caused him and his family fear and annoyance.
According to Lombardo, she called Lacher on April 12, and he told her he was at the police station with a Detective and attempted to put an NRPD Detective on the phone with Lombardo. She says she hung up.
Lombardo was not arrested based on Lacher’s April 12 complaint.
Lacher appears to have discontinued communicating directly with Lombardo and instead began communicating via email with Lombardo’s mother. The mother and daughter live together in an apartment in New Rochelle.
Lombardo claimed, and emails provided by Lombardo and seen by Talk of the Sound appear to confirm, that Lacher sought to arrange a three-way sexual encounter involving him, Lombardo and Lombardo’s mother.
As noted, Lacher has declined comment.
The mother sought to arrange a meeting between Lacher and Lombardo on her birthday on May 3. Lombardo says that a three-hour meeting took place at a public park in Larchmont on that day.
Lombardo says since the April 10 confrontation, Lacher would tell her to stay away one day then talk about reuniting on others. The police report of April 12 and emails Lacher sent to the mother are consistent with her characterization of Lacher’s behavior which she described as manipulative, confusing and difficult for her to understand.
Based on court documents seen by Talk of the Sound, Lombardo repeatedly contacted Lacher’s family members and a current school board member about Lacher’s personal conduct and more.
On May 13, David Lacher filed two separate statements with the New Rochelle Police Department.
In the first statement, Lacher said on May 10 he began receiving dozens of calls and voicemails to his home and office phones and cell phone from Lombardo. The calls continued through until May 13, up to and including while giving his statement to the police.
Lacher continued stating he also received “an astonishingly large number of emails from Stephanie Lombardo’s email account, many of which were “deeply troubling, graphic, rude and crude, and many of those explicitly concerned a current board member who Lacher described as “my friend and client”. He stated he also received a large number of emails from Lombardo’s mother’s email account which he said were also graphic and crude.
Lacher continued stating the emails contained “threats to be shared” with Lacher’s office landlord; the New Rochelle Bar Association where Lacher is Vice President; BNI, a business networking group where Lacher is a member; and a senior Rabbi at his synagogue. Lacher said he knew the emails were sent because he received phone calls from the recipients.
Lacher said that several of the voicemails contained “threats of harm”.
Lacher ended saying the calls and emails put him and his family in fear for their personal safety, and he wanted to pursue criminal charges against Stephanie Lombardo.
In the second statement, Lacher said he received a call from a family member who played “disturbing voicemails” from a person the family member did not recognize. Lacher stated he “instantly identified the voice as that of Stephanie Lombardo”. When a police detective played another voicemail, he again identified the voice as that of Stephanie Lombardo.
The family member who contacted Lacher about the voicemails gave a statement to police saying on May 10 they received a phone call from “No Caller ID”. The family member says they did not answer the call because on the weekend of April 9, the same caller, Stephanie Lombardo, was calling Lacher and another family member. The family member stated they had received 25 phone calls from Lombardo on the weekend of April 9.
The family member continued, saying on May 10 they received 10 additional calls and received lengthy voice mails that were graphic, lewd, and aggressive. The calls mentioned the family members job and two young children and made inappropriate remarks about a current school board member, referencing their name, their religion, their place of origin, their place of employment and the board member’s family member.
The family member continued, saying on May 12 they were blind copied on an email from what they believed to be Lombardo’s mother with the subject line “David Lacher Open Letter” and copied on an email directed to a current school board member.
The family member continued, saying on May 13 they were sent an email also sent to the current school board member and Lacher with a note to them stating (you will) “receive your Karma”.
The family member said the calls and emails put them in fear for themselves and their family, and they wanted to pursue criminal charges against Stephanie Lombardo.
Sources who have seen these emails say they include allegations of lewd behavior by Lacher, but these allegations are not in the police statements.
On May 11, a current school board member, gave a statement to the New Rochelle Police saying on May 10 they received 31 phone calls and voicemails. They said they did not know the woman who called, but they were told it was the same woman “harassing my attorney and friend” David Lacher. They said Lacher told them the woman was Stephanie Lombardo.
The current school board member continued saying the voicemails were “intimidating and scary” because they contained information about her home address and family situation, and they were scared Lombardo might do something to them or a family member.
The current school board member continued saying that at on May 11 at 4:27 a.m., someone claiming to be Lombardo’s mother sent a text message “warning me not to go to the police”.
The current school board member ended by saying they were in fear, and they wanted to pursue criminal charges against Stephanie Lombardo.
The remaining court records provided some additional information on calls, voicemails, and emails.
Lacher was a longtime member of the New Rochelle Board of Education, serving 3 terms as President of the Board. His last year on the school board after 25 years of board service was in 2017. Lacher, an attorney, is Vice President of the New Rochelle Bar Association.
In the past, he has served in leadership positions with United Hebrew of New Rochelle, Beth El Temple of New Rochelle and the New Rochelle Industrial Development Agency, among others.
Lacher was not renewed as Board President in 2014 after his Board colleagues learned that he had misappropriated $13,500 in school district funds to pay for his personal medical insurance.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Talk of the Sound first learned of the matters leading up to today’s court proceedings on April 12 in what was at the time a phone call from an anonymous caller we later came to learn was Stephanie Lombardo. She called wanting a story about how she said David Lacher had treated her badly as their personal relationship deteriorated in the preceding days, calling her misogynistic names and his claiming she wanted to become pregnant by him, so he would have to support her.
We explained to Lombardo that we did not report on such personal matters but rather public events, police and fire incidents, public sector corruption and similar “hard news” and unless the police or courts were involved in a criminal matter, there was no reason to publish a story about a personal relationship.
In addition to several phone calls detailing her version of events, again seeking a story for publication, she transmitted what we believe to be text message exchanges between Stephanie Lombardo and David Lacher and emails we believe to be email exchanges between Stephanie Lombardo’s mother and David Lacher. They appear to support her account of an ongoing sexual relationship between her and Lacher. Lombardo claimed to have explicit photographs of Lacher sent to her by Lacher which we did not seek nor obtain.
While the texts and emails from Lacher to Lombardo were at times lewd, graphic and highly sexualized we saw nothing he wrote that rose to the level of a story for publication.
That changed dramatically today after Lacher and two other people filed statements with the New Rochelle Police Department seeking and getting criminal charges brought against Lombardo by the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office.
Lacher is a public figure and the matter is now before the New Rochelle City Court and a matter of public record. This is no longer a personal matter.
We know the names of all the parties identified in the court records but are not publishing them based on our view that whatever the court ultimately decides regarding the allegations against Lombardo that in our opinion David Lacher did have an ongoing sexual relationship with Lombardo, that David Lacher’s reprehensible behavior did precipitate any alleged harassment, that other unnamed parties are not simply alleged victims of alleged harassment but are victims of David Lacher’s deplorable conduct.
Well, what is a shiksa in your opinion, let’s start with that.
That seems like a mildly antisemitic thing to say.
You’ve strongly implied that somehow the fact that he’s a misgynistic dirtbag is related to the fact that he happens to be Jewish. Care to elaborate?
Juan can explain his statement himself.
I gather there IS agreement on Lacher being a misogynistic dirtbag.
She was nothing but a shiksa to him.