Earlier this month, the Vero Beach Police Department investigated a rape accusation lodged against one of its own officers. Hours after the officer was cleared, he came under suspicion by Sheriff’s Office deputies at a Vero Beach High School football game.
If not for the incident at the football game, which put a spotlight on the Vero officer and caused a reporter to look into his background, the public would likely have never known a city employee was investigated for sexual assault following a woman’s complaint.
The officer, identified by Vero Beach Deputy Chief Matt Monaco as Edsen Thelisme, lives in a city-owned house at Charles Park on the mainland in exchange for providing security at the park in his off-hours. In August, a woman alleged she was assaulted by Thelisme inside that city-owned house.
Sexual assault is a serious felony, but Vero Beach police leadership handled the investigation internally rather than turning it over to an outside agency like the Florida Department of Law Enforcement so as to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. Potential for such a conflict existed because if the allegations had led to a criminal referral, the city would have been at risk of civil liability as well as considerable embarrassment.
Deputy Chief Monaco told Vero Beach 32963 in an email, “Officer Thelisme was placed on paid administrative leave on 9/1/26. Once the investigation is complete the reports will be available. He was taken off paid administrative leave on 9/4/26 prior to the VBHS football game.”
Sept. 4 was the Friday leading up to Labor Day weekend. Officer Thelisme, who was off duty that night, showed up at the game armed but in plain clothes with another off-duty Vero officer, likewise in plain clothes and carrying her gun. The pair arrived on school grounds in a Vero Beach Police patrol car they weren’t supposed to be driving.
This led to a series of troubling events in which deputies who did not know Thelisme was a police officer suspected him of unauthorized access to the patrol car he and the other officer, Mary Mathews, arrived in. Multiple deputies and Vero Beach police were notified of the potential intrusion, causing a Vero police sergeant and at least one other Vero officer to go to the stadium to find out what was going on.
In the midst of that confusion, Thelisme and Mathews were told by deputies to either get rid of their guns or leave the Citrus Bowl area.
Sheriff’s deputies, as part of their School Resource Officer duties, are charged with guarding the football game and monitoring activity in the Citrus Bowl parking lot, assisted by drone technology.
According to a Vero Beach police memo about the incidents at the game, the confusion began when Sheriff’s Det. Sgt. R. Matthews – who was the drone officer that evening – “observed a black male inside of a VBPD vehicle. He said the subject did not appear to be an officer and did not see an officer in the immediate area. He then radioed this information to other officers that were assigned to the football game as he found the incident to be suspicious. He advised the male was wearing a black shirt with black hat and necklace.”
The memo, which was provided to Vero Beach 32963 by Monaco in response to the public records request, was written by Sgt. Gregory Plumb, the Vero duty sergeant who went to the stadium to find out what was going on.
According to the memo, at around 7:10 p.m., on-duty Vero Beach officers were made aware by deputies “that an unknown black male was inside of a marked VBPD vehicle that was parked in the 1600 block of 14th Ct. along the east side of the Citrus Bowl. They stated the subject was in civilian attire and had on no distinguishable law enforcement insignia from their vantage point.”
Vero Beach police officer Jeff Otis went to the stadium, located the parked police cruiser and made sure it was secure. He then radioed that information back to dispatch, noting that the vehicle number was unit #59.
The memo continues: “VBPD dispatch advised that that unit was assigned to Officer Mary Mathews and dispatch advised that she was not currently showing an on-duty status nor advised she would be operating the vehicle.
“Once I arrived on scene I contacted Officer Mathews via cellphone and advised her to come back to her vehicle. She stated she was at the football game and that she was on her way back. I observed Officer Mathews wearing a white shirt and upon a brief glance I did not observe any type of immediately recognizable police insignia. With her was Officer Thelisme who was wearing a black shirt with a black hat, and I also did not observe any recognizable police insignia on him.”
When Sgt. Plumb asked Mathews why she was driving her marked VBPD unit off duty, she said she thought she was allowed to as long as it was in the city and to an event like the football game.
Mathews told Plumb that her and Thelisme were the only ones in the vehicle and that the drone officer must have seen them returning to the car to drop off their firearms after deputies stopped them from carrying the guns inside the stadium.
“I then informed Officer Mathews the situations in which she could operate her agency vehicle and had her take the vehicle back to her residence,” Plumb wrote in the memo.
Ironically, an earlier incident with Mathews was the reason deputies would not let Vero officers into the stadium with their guns.
“Det. Sgt. J. Curby who is the sergeant of school resource [told me] … his deputies had observed Officer Mathews several weeks ago attend a high school football game at the Citrus Bowl in what described as detective style clothing while carrying a badge and only displayed firearm. He advised this raised a concern with a citizen when they observed the firearm, but it was quickly determined that she was an officer. He stated going forward only on-duty officers will be allowed access [to the stadium] with a firearm.”
These events – including the decision to let Officer Thelisme’s brother officers investigate the rape accusation – could in some minds raise questions about the competence and judgment of some members of the Vero Beach Police Department.
