By Summer Lin
Los Angeles Times
COSTA MESA, Calif. — A former Costa Mesa police officer has admitted he called and messaged a woman he had an extramarital relationship with thousands of times and used confidential law enforcement databases to track her location, according to authorities.
Robert Jay Josett, 35, of Costa Mesa pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of unauthorized computer access and fraud, one misdemeanor count of annoying and repeated phone calls and one misdemeanor count of contempt of court for violating a restraining order, according to an Orange County district attorney’s office news release.
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Josett admitted to contacting the woman sometimes more than 100 times a day during a period of nine months, authorities said. He also allegedly violated a restraining order by driving by her house after he was given notice that he would be fired by the Costa Mesa Police Department, according to the agency.
He also used law enforcement databases to track the location of the woman, as well as his wife.
As a result of his plea, Josett was ordered to complete a 52-week domestic violence program and was sentenced to three years of informal probation, according to the news release. He has already spent nine months wearing a court-ordered GPS ankle monitor after he was arrested.
Between June 2023 and December 2023, Josett used the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System to make 13 inquiries into people, including the woman and his wife, as well as vehicles unrelated to his job, according to a news release.
Josett was placed on leave from the Costa Mesa Police Department in December 2023.
Starting in April 2024 , after Josett’s ex broke up with him, he allegedly threatened to reveal explicit photos of her and demanded to know if she had had sex with someone else, according to the release. He started calling her and her new boyfriend as many as 58 times in a day and drove by her house, authorities said.
He also allegedly illegally accessed the Police Department’s license plate reader system in June 2024 to track the location of her new boyfriend in Torrance, according to authorities.
On June 28, 2024, Josett was served with an emergency protective order and given notice of intent to terminate from the Costa Mesa Police Department, according to authorities. Josett left the Police Department and drove by the woman’s home in violation of the restraining order, authorities said. He was arrested.
“The actions engaged by someone employed as a sworn police officer are obsessive, they are frightening and they are dangerous,” Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer said in a statement. “No one should have to live in fear of being tracked through law enforcement databases by someone with a badge and a gun because they decided to call off a romantic relationship. And no one gets to hide behind the badge as a shield for engaging in criminal behavior.”
Josett’s actions were reported to the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, which oversees licensing for law enforcement officers in California.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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