A former Costa Mesa police officer was sentenced to three years of probation this week after pleading guilty to three misdemeanor counts related to the alleged harassment of a woman with thousands of texts and phone calls and alleged use of confidential police databases to track the woman and his wife, authorities said.
Robert Jay Josett, 35, of Costa Mesa pleaded guilty Monday, April 13, to misdemeanor counts of computer access and fraud, annoying repeated telephone calls and disobeying a court order, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
In addition to the sentence, he was ordered to complete a 52-week domestic violence program, said Kimberly Edds, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney’s Office. His Peace Officers Standards and Training certification, which allows him to work as a peace officer in California, was under review.
Josett was accused, from June to December 2023, of using the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System database to make 13 searches on people and vehicles not related to his job, Edds said. Those searches included the woman, someone she had dated, and his wife. Josett also allegedly used the Police Department’s license-plate-reader system to find the woman’s vehicle and the vehicles of her romantic interests.
After the woman called off their relationship in April 2024, he repeatedly called, texted and sent social-media messages to her, allegedly threatening to reveal explicit photos and demanding to know if she was being intimate with anyone else, Edds said. After finding out she had a new boyfriend, he repeatedly called both of them upward of 58 times collectively in a single day.
Josett was accused of continuing to use the license-plate-reader system after he was placed on leave from the department in December 2023, accessing it in June 2024 to find the address of the woman’s new boyfriend, Edds said.
On June 28, 2024, he was served with an emergency protective order and a notice of intent to terminate from the Costa Mesa Police Department, but after leaving headquarters, Josett drove by the woman’s home in violation of the restraining order and was arrested, Edds said.
“The actions engaged by someone employed as a sworn police officer are obsessive, they are frightening and they are dangerous,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said. “No one should have to live in fear of being tracked through law-enforcement databases by someone with a badge and gun because they decided to call off a romantic relationship.”
Josett’s attorney did not respond to requests for comment.