Woman with history of criminal harassment charged in connection to suspicious package scare

A 31-year-old woman has been charged in connection to a series of suspicious packages that had Saskatoon emergency services scrambling Tuesday afternoon.
 
Alexa Emerson, also known as Amanda May Totchek, is facing 15 charges stemming from the incident, according to defence lawyer Brian Pfefferle. The counts include mischief and uttering threats.
 
Two other people arrested in connection with the suspicious packages were released Wednesday without charge.

Police believe Emerson hired the pair to unwittingly deliver two of the five packages.
 
Pfefferle said this early in the case, he is still working through all the details, but he denied any wrongdoing by his client.
 
“At this stage, we truly don’t know anything about the situation. I am aware that there’s a bit of a complicated domestic situation here,” he said, adding:
 
“These sorts of things, like all spousal-type relationships, have their own weird dynamic and I think, unfortunately, this is one that has led to some charges for my client.”
 
Pfefferle said Emerson was already in custody Tuesday, well before police started getting calls about the packages.
 
He said she turned herself in to face charges of criminal harassment and mischief stemming from early October.
 
Emerson was in court Wednesday morning on those charges.
 
She’s alleged to have sent a video to several people depicting herself tied up and being abused, with the goal of pinning the crime on a local man.
 
Pfefferle said Emerson is expected to appear in court Thursday morning for a formal reading of the charges stemming from Tuesday’s suspicious package scare.
 
She’s currently being held in custody on the October charges pending a bail hearing scheduled for Dec. 6.
 
Emerson (appearing under the name Amanda Totchek), pleaded guilty in June 2015 to harassment, fraud and mischief.
 
Those charges stemmed from what police described as a years-long pattern of harrassment against an ex-boyfriend.

Emerson admitted to sending threatening letters and messages to people and businesses around the province and signing them with her ex-boyfriend’s name.
 
She was also found to have used an email account in her ex’s name to send people pictures of naked children.