L.I. Man Arrested for Harrassing Representative Ackerman

Over the past few weeks a man from Hicksville, Long Island has been making frequent, disjointed phone calls to Representative Gary L. Ackerman at his Bayside, Queens’s office. Although the calls did not threaten violence, or seem to be politically motivated, because the caller seemed to be getting more agitated, and also because he lied about his identity and said he was an FBI agent, he was arrested by Nassau County police last Friday night.

The man, James Guarnaccio is 55 years old, and was charged with two counts of aggravated harassment. Mr. Guarnaccio was arraigned at his bedside on Saturday at the Nassau University Medical Center, where he was admitted for evaluation.

Mr. Ackerman said the calls to his office began on Dec. 23. “I thought, why the heck is he calling me? There are a lot of phone numbers in the book” Mr. Ackerman said. “When he impersonated an F.B.I. agent, that’s when he crossed a certain line.”