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12/15/2022 04:29 PMAn Old Saybrook Police Officer is under arrest after allegations he abused department equipment to determine the name of a woman with the intent to follow her on the social media site Instagram.
According to a press release from the Old Saybrook Police Department (OSPD), patrolman Josh Zarbo was arrested on Dec. 14 and placed on administrative leave. Zarbo was charged with computer crimes in the third degree.
“Mr. Zarbo is accused of illegally accessing the Connecticut On-Line Law Enforcement Teleprocessing (COLLECT) System to obtain vehicle registration information which he then used for his own personal gain,” the release stated.
The investigation is ongoing, according to the release, and Zarbo has no law enforcement authority while on leave. Zarbo had been with the department since 2017 and lives in Clinton.
In a statement, OSPD Chief of Police Michael Spera said, “The Old Saybrook Police Department takes our responsibility to ensure that department employees are adhering to workplace expectations and the law very seriously.
“Old Saybrook citizens must be assured that they can trust their Police Department not only to provide superior traditional and non-traditional law enforcement services every day, but that they can also trust their Police Department to maintain high standards, swiftly address internal matters, and possess the ability to properly police our own, ” Spera added.
The Charges
The Harbor News obtained a copy of the arrest warrant for Zarbo. In an affidavit, Master Sergeant Christopher DeMarco wrote that he was assigned to the case after a citizen complaint received on Nov. 29 alleged that Zarbo used the COLLECT system to access a vehicle registration information related to a woman’s registration plate number without authorization so he could find her name and subsequently follow her on Instagram.
The complaint alleges that on Nov. 25, a 21-year-old woman was at Walmart in Old Saybrook shopping with her sister as part of a Black Friday event. Zarbo was working with the Department to provide security at the event and, beyond perhaps a quick hello to the officers, the alleged victim said she and her sister had no contact with Zarbo during the day.
Meanwhile, Mairin Finnegan-Johnson, wife of Old Saybrook Fire Department chief Joseph Johnson, was at home and according to DeMarco, heard the name and plate number of the 21-year-old come over the scanner. Finnegan-Johnson alerted her husband, who knew the alleged victim through a work connection according to the affidavit. Johnson texted the 21-year-old woman to ask if she was ok and advised her he heard the police running her plates on the scanner, which surprised the woman. DeMarco wrote that the woman then later found she had a new follower on Instagram which was determined to be Zarbo who she recognized from seeing at Walmart.
Upon being made aware of the complaint against Zarbo, the department opened an internal investigation as well as a criminal investigation. DeMarco wrote that in an interview with Zarbo on Dec. 1, Zarbo told him he ran the plates because he was suspicious that the 21-year-old’s sister kept looking at him as they drove by him in the parking lot.
In her interview with police, the alleged victim said that her sister noticed Zarbo staring at their car and waved to be polite. Zarbo told DeMarco that once he learned the woman’s name, he thought it sounded familiar so he followed her on Instagram.
As part of its investigation, the department reviewed texts between Zarbo and dispatcher Charles Moriarty. In the messages, Zarbo told Moriarty that he was “gaming” and asks for the plates to be run. DeMarco wrote that "gaming" is a popular slang term for attempting to pick up women. Moriarty asked Zarbo to call in the request over the radio instead of text. DeMarco wrote that it is not OSPD standard operating procedure to request plates to be run via texts to dispatchers.
Zarbo initially told DeMarco that he called in the plate request immediately after the women drove by him in the parking lot. However, a review of call logs revealed Zarbo had waited about 20 minutes for the request, which DeMarco noted was odd if Zarbo believed the women had been acting suspiciously. Zarbo countered he didn’t realize it had been that long before he made the call and he just wanted the call documented in case it turned out something was stolen.
In the affidavit, DeMarco stated that as part of his COLLECT system training, Zarbo signed a document acknowledging that the system was to be used for law enforcement purposes only and not personal use as well as acknowledging the punishment for such misuse is criminal charges.
Zarbo concluded that enough evidence was present to ask for an arrest warrant which was granted on Dec. 13. An administrative investigation into Zarbo's actions remains ongoing.
This has been a tumultuous year for officers at OSPD. Zarbo is the third officer to face serious scrutiny for his actions on the job. In early January, the Police Commission voted to fire officer Austin Harris after Harris filed a false police report and lied to his superiors about how his computer was damaged.
Later in the year, Officer Tyler Schulz was handed a 90-day unpaid suspension by the commission for allegedly choking one person and pushing another while intoxicated at an Essex restaurant. Schulz then resigned shortly after being reinstated following an internal investigation showed he had admitted to participating in sexual acts while on duty and intentionally damaged department property.