Barrington flamethrower suspect facing intimidation, stalking charges

Already accused of using a flamethrower to torch her luxury SUV in a parking lot, authorities say a Barrington woman now faces charges alleging she orchestrated tens of thousands of threatening telephone calls, text messages and emails to a man since 2016.

Julie Gagne, 48, of the 500 block of South Summit Street, was charged last month with intimidation, cyber stalking and phone harassment, as well as violating her bond in the flamethrower case, authorities said. Barrington police said the calls came from "spoofed" numbers to mislead caller ID, but the communications were later traced to Gagne.

Gagne attorney Sam Amirante said Monday she posted about $33,000 cash bail and is free on the condition she wear a GPS device and an ankle monitor before trial. He said Gagne, who cannot leave her home, should be presumed innocent.

"It's just a very crazy case with a lot of interesting players involved," said Amirante, who declined to elaborate.

In November 2017, authorities said, Gagne used a flamethrower to set her SUV ablaze in an office center parking lot on the 1500 block of South Grove Avenue, near Dundee Road. She falsely reported the 2016 Infiniti QX70 registered in her name was stolen, police said.

Barrington police said the new case against Gagne began when the man reported on Oct. 2 that he had received tens of thousands of unwanted phone calls, emails and text messages with threats since 2016. Calls also were made to the man's business partners and family members, authorities said.

Gagne is accused of creating fear in the man by devising a story that "multiple people were after him for his money as well as doing harm to him and his family," according to an investigative summary by Barrington police Det. Lori Allsteadt that was presented in court.

Authorities said the man is the same Barrington resident who Gagne contended bought her the $1,600 flamethrower on his credit card in 2017 because she was unable to charge it on her account.

"The story entailed several families in Barrington trying to embezzle money from the victim or trying to do harm to the victim's family," documents say. "Shortly after this story was laid out to him by Julie Gagne, the victim starting receiving hundreds of emails from individuals that he believed were Chicago police officers, private investigators, as well as mob members, (and) other people trying to help him figure out how to stop this and discover who was behind the threats and phone calls. Some of these individuals were trying to help him while others were threatening to do harm to the victim and his family."

Nearly 30,000 calls were received by the man on his cellular and work telephones from spoofed numbers appearing to come from people he believed were street gang members, mobsters, his business associates and Barrington families harassing him, according to police documents.

The Barrington police summary also says the victim received emails from who he thought were Chicago police officers and private investigators telling him to pay the money requested by the gang members to make the threats stop,

Authorities said the man made several withdrawals from his bank account after receiving the threatening text messages and handed envelopes with thousands of dollars to Gagne, believing she was giving them to police or a private investigator.

Gagne's case involving the flamethrower has yet to be resolved in Cook County circuit court. She is charged with arson, disorderly conduct and filing a false police report stemming from the fire and subsequent claim that her SUV had been stolen.