A New York Police Department psychologist who told detectives she was knocked unconscious by an intruder on the night her husband was shot has pleaded guilty to attempted assault.
Emily Dearden pleaded guilty to attempted assault, Westchester County District Attorney Anthony A. Scarpino announced Friday. As part of a plea deal, she will serve three-and-a-half years in state prison and two years of supervised release. She is due back in court for sentencing June 7.
She is accused of shooting her husband, Kenneth Dearden, as he slept in their Yonkers home. He survived and has filed a lawsuit against her, alleging she was trying to get rid of him because she was having an affair and wanted to avoid a messy divorce.
The 46-year-old pleaded not guilty to attempted murder, assault and weapons charges at her May 2015 arraignment as prosecutors released accounts of several statements they say she made after the Nov. 14, 2013, shooting.
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Emily Dearden told police both she and her husband had had "infidelities," the transcript says. But she told detectives that on the night of the shooting, she woke up before dawn, left her husband sleeping in their bed and went downstairs.
There, according to the police account, "I got hit hard on the left side of my head. ... I don't know what I got hit with. I don't know who hit me. I never saw it coming. I was knocked to the floor, unconscious."
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The next thing she remembers, according to the transcript, was being shaken awake by Dearden, who was bleeding from a gunshot wound.
An ambulance took him to the hospital. It turned out he had been shot while the couple's children were sleeping nearby. He spent about eight days in the hospital, including surgery to remove a bullet from his jaw.
Police also say Emily Dearden told them there were no weapons in the house. But she is charged with possessing four guns, including two .22-caliber pistols. Prosecutors say a.22-caliber bullet was removed from Kenneth Dearden's jaw.
Dearden, who has been suspended from her NYPD job, was allowed to remain free on a $150,000 bond. She is due back in court July 30.
