The good people of Indian River Shores aren’t going to like this.
They’re not going to like reading about one of the town’s Public Safety Department officers being so consumed with contesting his alimony payments that he left his jurisdiction in the early hours of a late September morning to check the surveillance cameras he set up outside his ex-wife’s Ocean Drive barber shop in Vero Beach.
They’re not going to like learning that, according to a written reprimand from his supervisor, the officer, Sgt. Bart Crosby, claimed in his activity log he was “patrolling in town” when the time stamp and date on the photos taken by his planted cameras showed he was “clearly out of” his designated work area.
They’re probably not going to like the fact that the discovery of these cameras prompted an investigation by the Vero Beach Police Department, which sent a detective to Crosby’s residence, only to be told the officer would make no statement unless his attorney was present.
The thought of a law-enforcement officer – a sergeant with 17 years on the job – abandoning his post while on duty, armed and in uniform, and under the cover of darkness at roughly 4:30 a.m. to check cameras strategically placed to keep track of how many customers patronize his ex-wife’s business is, at the very least, unsettling.
Some might call it creepy.
But as far as the local authorities are concerned, Crosby didn’t do anything illegal.
In fact, VBPD Det. Brad Kmetz, who conducted the investigation into the hidden cameras, said in his report that, after consulting with the State Attorney’s Office, he concluded no crime was committed and the incident was “civil in nature.”
Kmetz did add, however: “The information should be documented in case future harassment arises.”
In the wake of the VBPD investigation and a written reprimand that states, “The purpose of this minor disciplinary action is to assure that this does not occur again,” Town Manager Robbie Stabe said he doesn’t anticipate any further problems from Crosby.
“It has been made very clear to him that this doesn’t smell right and to knock it off,” said Stabe, a former Shores Public Safety Director.
In a statement issued Monday, Stabe described the situation as “unfortunate” and a “private civil issue,” adding that the reprimand was the “first disciplinary action of (Crosby’s) lengthy career with the agency, and the matter is now closed.”
The matter of the cameras, anyway.
As for the alimony …
Crosby’s ex-wife, Janine Hyde, was awarded lifetime alimony when their 12-year marriage ended in divorce in July 2005. Though she refused to be quoted for this column, she said he believes he is paying too much and has gone to court annually in the years since to reduce the amount or eliminate his payments entirely.
Crosby, who agreed to be interviewed only via email, said the alimony payments are excessive and causing a financial strain. He said he is continuing to seek relief from the courts.
“My attorney has filed a petition with the circuit court to terminate the permanent periodic alimony,” he wrote.
“After almost 11 years of paying the alimony (for a 12-year marriage), I am just now back to making the salary I made in 2004.
“My ex-wife is untruthful about her income at an all-cash business that she purchased several years ago,” he continued, adding, “The cameras tell a dramatically different story.”
So does Hyde, the ex-wife.
In a letter written “with great embarrassment and desperation” and sent to then-director Stabe in June 2012, she claimed she had been “verbally and emotionally abused by Bart” for eight years and that her ex-husband has been “very angry with me because he pays child support and alimony.”
She wrote that she felt “harassed” and “intimidated” and “scared that Bart is so frustrated with the courts that he is going to blow,” then asked Stabe to speak to her ex-husband.
In his written response to Hyde, Stabe informed her that the personal nature of her letter obligated him to share its contents with Crosby, who denied his ex-wife’s allegations.
“I did read the 2012 letter and vaguely remember it,” Crosby wrote. “Her claims are untruthful and unsubstantiated. She has no witnesses, no recordings, nothing in writing from me, or any other proof to support her claims after almost 11 years of making the same claims.”
Though Stabe told Hyde that “it is not my place to approach one of my employees about extremely personal issues, such as these,” he said he would talk to Crosby if the officer came to him.
Apparently, somebody talked to someone – because there has been no direct contact between Crosby and Hyde since, except in a courtroom.
“I have stopped reading her letters, I have blocked her phone number and I have at times even blocked her email address,” Crosby said. “We have no reason to communicate since our children are teens and young adults.”
Hyde confirmed the two no longer communicate directly and, according to her twin brother, Steve, she requested from the VBPD and received last month a no-trespass order that bans Crosby from her home and place of business.
After the hidden cameras were found, she wrote another letter last month – this time to the town’s acting public safety director, Tony Dudley – and said the discovery left her feeling “freaked out” and that “this stalking needs to stop.”
“It’s been over 10 years,” she wrote, “and I’m looking over my shoulder more than ever.”
For what it’s worth, Crosby said he made sure it was legal to use the surveillance cameras by talking to “several attorneys, several police officers from several jurisdictions and a private investigator” before planting them.
He admits that leaving his patrol to check the cameras was a mistake, but he said it happened only once and he was out of his jurisdiction for just 10 minutes.
“I should not have allowed my personal feelings to interfere with my job performance,” he wrote. “I have made it clear to my supervisors that this will never happen again. When I am on duty, the town and the residents are my first priority.”
They need to be.
When Crosby is on duty, the good people of Indian River Shores need to know he’s there to protect them, serve them and, when necessary, save them.
He won’t like what happens if he isn’t.
