WAUKESHA, Wis. — A woman from Hartland now faces a felony charge after her swatting call lead to a shelter-in-place.
50-year-old Lisa O’Donnell is charged with felony false reporting of an emergency and misdemeanor disorderly conduct.
The Waukesha County Communications dispatch center received a call from the woman now identified as O’Donnell around 12:56 p.m. on August 26 claiming that she was being held hostage at gunpoint in her apartment in Hartland.
According to the criminal complaint obtained by 620 WTMJ, O’Donnell called the non-emergency line to report that “she is a victim of domestic violence” and that she didn’t feel safe in her own home. She told the dispatcher that “there were guns and that she was threatened with a gun” and that she was being held at gunpoint before she eventually stopped answering the dispatcher’s questions.
This caused Lake Country Lutheran High School to be placed on lockdown and a 1-mile area shelter-in-place order for the area near Campus and Willow while SWAT teams investigated.
Court documents show that police noticed that O’Donnell appeared to be intoxicated once she exited the home, “immediately detecting the strong odor of intoxicants emanating from her person, and [she] was observed struggling with balance”. They also noted there was no one else in the home, and found no evidence that she was being held at gunpoint and no weapon in the home.
She was arrested by Hartland Police, and made her first appearance in court on August 27. Cash bond was set at $1500, and she’s due back in court for a hearing on September 15.
If convicted on all charges, O’Donnell could face just over 3 years in prison.
