Rishil Bisnath appears in a booking photo. (Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office)
An ex-husband in Florida tried to get his ex-wife’s new beau in legal trouble, but the effort boomeranged back on him, and now he’s been charged with two crimes instead, authorities say.
Rishil Bisnath, 44, now stands accused of one count each of making a false report of a commission of a non-existent crime and resisting an officer by obstructing without violence, according to Palm Beach County court and jail records reviewed by Law&Crime.
The underlying issue appears to be a child custody dispute.
The latest incident occurred on Tuesday, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime. That day, Bisnath called the sheriff’s office to report a threat against him, a deputy wrote in the court filing.
“Upon arrival, Bisnath presented me with two messages that he stated were sent from his phone to his iPad,” the affidavit reads. Bisnath presented a message that read, ‘I will kill your kids before they turn old.’ After reading the concerning message, I questioned the origins of the text. Bisnath stated [the texts] came from his ex-wife’s new boyfriend.”
He allegedly did not maintain that story for very long.
“After talking with Bisnath, it was revealed that Bisnath actually created the threatening message and texted to himself in hopes of getting law enforcement to go to his ex-wife’s residence,” the affidavit reads.
After that alleged confession, deputies moved to arrest Bisnath. But he allegedly protested and attempted to “pull away” from the deputies there while saying, “You can’t take me to jail.”
“I assisted Bisnath to the ground, where he then placed his hands under his stomach in an attempt to further resist his detainment,” the deputy wrote in the probable cause affidavit.
He was arrested late that night, booked, and released from jail the next day. His arraignment is slated for Nov. 30.
The recent incident is not the first time Bisnath has allegedly caused his own grief by asking law enforcement for help.
In June, Bisnath was charged with one count of misuse of the 911 system, a probable cause affidavit in a separate case says.
“Once I made contact with Bisnath at his residence, he stated (not verbatim) that he needed help with a child custody issue he was having with his wife,” the June affidavit reads. “I questioned Bisnath on whether or not he was told that calling 911 was for emergencies only and if PBSO Communications instructed him to use the non-emergency line.”
Bisnath admitted he was told about three to four times not to dial 911 for non-emergency issues, such as “his concern over how to get custody of his child,” the document said.
“The call history revealed that Bisnath had dialed 911 a total of six times today,” the sheriff’s office added.
He was not arrested for the 911 misuse incident.
That earlier case was dismissed in a pre-trial diversion agreement after Bisnath paid a $150 fine to cover the cost of the prosecution.
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