Security cameras are being installed at Hightower Beach Park, 815 SR A1A in Satellite Beach, while the brutal sexual assault case that prompted the $40,000 in safety improvements plods on against the suspect as the year anniversary approaches.
The Satellite Beach City Council unanimously voted in October to add surveillance cameras to monitor the beach access, parking lot, entrance/exit, the exterior of the restroom building and the two main pavilions which will have new 180-degree panoramic cameras.
The park had a pilot program for video surveillance more than 10 years ago but the system malfunctioned within a few months, said Police Chief Jeff Pearson.
Crews with Miller Electric on site over the past week have been able to utilize existing underground tubing for the new system after removing the old wiring, he said.
The new system, greatly improved over the capabilities of the previous equipment, will have real-time monitors for police dispatchers but they will not be monitored 24/7. In addition, the live video feed will be able to be accessed if needed by patrol cars with laptops, but the system mostly will be used for evidence after the fact, he said.
“We’ll make sure to have several weeks of storage which should be more than long enough to go back and look something up because most arrests are made within that length of time,” he said.
Had the new video system been up and running at the time of the 2017 sexual assault, it might have aided investigators with a quick license plate number to track the suspect who later was arrested due to a DNA match: Harry Page, 37, of Winter Haven, a registered sexual predator.
According to police reports and court documents on the Hightower case, the 59-year-old victim was sitting at the park reading a book when a man began punching her, dragged her outside, shoved a towel in her mouth, threatened to kill her and sexually assaulted her. She suffered serious injuries. DNA evidence collected under the victim’s fingernails linked Page, who was serving time in Polk County for failing to report as a sexual predator, a status he received after being convicted for an attack on a Tampa jogger in 2000.
He ended up spending 13 years in jail for the crime.
For the Hightower incident Page faces charges of attempted murder, aggravated sexual battery, robbery and false imprisonment. Depositions are still being taken in the case. A docket sounding in his case is scheduled for Feb. 12 at the Moore Justice Center in Viera.
Page is being represented by attorney John Gray from the Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel for the Fifth District. Assistant Public Defender Calvin Gittens, originally representing Page, successfully petitioned to withdraw from the case after because a conflict of interest that arose once the Public Defender’s office realized it had previously represented the victim as a defendant.
The Hightower cameras will be followed by a similar system to be installed at Pelican Beach Park which already is in the city’s long range budget. Also being considered are cameras in the city skate park and dog park. n