East Meadow woman charged with mailing threatening letters, slashing tires, police say

An East Meadow woman was arrested at her home Wednesday, charged with slashing tires on multiple vehicles and mailing threatening letters containing "an unknown white substance," police said.

The substance packed into envelopes turned out to be confectioners sugar, Nassau County police said in a news release Thursday.

Judith McGlone, 50, of 2227 Fifth Ave., is charged with two counts of third-degree criminal mischief and one count of second-degree placing a false bomb. She faces arraignment Thursday in First District Court in Hempstead.

Police did not detail a motive.

McGlone was arrested at 7:05 a.m. following an investigation by major case bureau special investigation squad detectives and members of the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Police said the FBI became involved because of the mailings.

The mailings were sent to what police described only as "various victims" in East Meadow. The mailed threats were not detailed by police.

It was not clear if McGlone targeted specific people or if the tire-slashing incidents and the mailings were random.

Additional details were not available, police said, because of the ongoing investigation.

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”