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05/21/2023 07:06 AMThe Old Saybrook Police Officer who was fired and arrested after he misused police equipment to learn more about a woman he wanted to follow on Instagram may have the charges against him dismissed.
At a special meeting on Feb. 13, the Old Saybrook Police Commission unanimously voted to fire Old Saybrook police officer Josh Zarbo after an accusation the officer used department equipment to learn a woman’s name so he could follow her on Instagram.
In December 2022, the Old Saybrook Police Department (OSPD) announced that Zarbo had been arrested for accessing the Connecticut On-Line Law Enforcement Teleprocessing (COLLECT) system to obtain vehicle registration information of a young woman he had seen earlier in the day so that he could get her name and follow her on the social media site Instagram.
Misuse of the COLLECT system is punishable by criminal charges. Following an investigation, Zarbo was charged with computer crimes in the third degree, a felony.
However, on April 25, a superior court judge in Middletown approved a request from Zarbo to enter into a one-year accelerated rehabilitation program which would dismiss the charge if he successfully completed the program.
According to a report from the New Haven Register, “If Zarbo stays out of trouble for one year and doesn’t contact the victim, the charge will be dismissed and erased from his record,” Judge Julia Dewey said.
Zarbo previously had pled not guilty in the case. Zarbo appealed his firing to the Connecticut State Board of Mediation and Arbitration, which is expected to rule on the case later in the year.
Additionally, Old Saybrook Police Chief Michael Spera told the police commission in March that he had asked the Police Officer Standards and Training Council Certification Division to suspend, revoke, or cancel Zarbo’s certification to be a police officer.
Spera received a letter in response that said the appeals process may take several months. A spokesperson for that board told the Harbor News that by statute, it cannot confirm if cases are active.
Spera told the commission that the maximum time a person can be decertified is two years. After that, an individual could be rehired to be a police officer in Connecticut.
Original Incident
The charges against Zarbo stem from an incident that occurred at a Black Friday event on Nov. 25, 2022. In an affidavit, Master Sergeant Christopher DeMarco wrote that the department received a complaint about Zarbo on Nov. 29.
DeMarco wrote 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 to provide security at the event. 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. According to the affidavit, Finnegan-Johnson alerted her husband, who knew the alleged victim through a work connection.
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 later found a new follower on Instagram, which was determined to be Zarbo, whom she recognized from seeing at Walmart.
Upon being made aware of the complaint against Zarbo, the department opened internal and criminal investigations. 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 asked for the plates to be run. DeMarco wrote that “gaming” is popular slang 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’s 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 woman 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 that he didn’t realize it had been that long before he made the call and just wanted the call documented in case 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, acknowledging the punishment for such misuse is criminal charges.
DeMarco concluded that enough evidence was present to ask for an arrest warrant granted on Dec. 13. Zarbo had been a department member for six years.