WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — A psychologist for the New York Police Department has been indicted on an attempted murder charge, accused of shooting her husband in the head as he slept in their suburban home.
The husband, Kenneth Dearden, has alleged in a lawsuit that his wife tried to kill him because she was having an affair and wanted to avoid a messy divorce.
In addition to attempted murder, a Westchester County grand jury charged Emily Dearden, 46, of Yonkers, with assault and five weapons charges.
Her arraignment is scheduled for May 14, the district attorney’s office said Thursday. If convicted, she could be sentenced to up to 25 years in prison.
A complaint said Dearden “attempted to cause the death of Kenneth Dearden by pointing a gun at him and firing a bullet into his head” in 2013. She was arrested last year.
Emily Dearden’s lawyer, Paul Bergman, issued a statement Thursday saying she denies the charges and is confident of acquittal. He said earlier that Kenneth Dearden’s lawsuit was “baseless” retaliation for his wife’s filing for divorce.
Kenneth Dearden, 48, a real estate developer, said he woke up on Nov. 14, 2013, with searing pain in his jaw — from a gunshot to the base of his skull. He survived, possibly because the shooter used an antique derringer, he said. The indictment accuses Emily Dearden of illegally possessing four guns, including two .22-caliber pistols that could be derringers.
She claimed an intruder had come in and knocked her unconscious, the lawsuit said.
It alleged that after the shooting, Emily Dearden called her lover before notifying her husband’s family and met the lover for coffee before visiting her husband at the hospital.
Kenneth Dearden’s lawyer said the civil case has been halted pending the resolution of the criminal case. The Deardens’ two daughters are living with their father, he said.
Emily Dearden was suspended last year from her NYPD job and ordered to stay away from her family, but Bergman said Thursday she is now seeing her daughters regularly. She is free on $150,000 bail.
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