A Florida man reportedly pretended he was a New York state trooper in an alleged attempt to have his ex-girlfriend arrested by reporting false claims about the woman.
37-year-old Claude Francis Tristram is from the Florida Keys.
According to reports, Tristram had been in a relationship with a woman, and when it concluded, she received a court order preventing him from contacting her in the future.
In March, the woman reported Tristram to the authorities and claimed he violated the order.
The police opened an investigation and reported that they discovered Tristram’s ex had received phone calls, texts, and USB storage devices with messages on them. The calls came from numbers not registered to Tristram, but the authorities alleged that he tried to make calls untraceable by using phone number spoofing software.
A couple of weeks later, an operator on the sheriff’s office 911 center’s non-emergency line was called by someone who said they were a New York state trooper.
The caller said they spotted a vehicle driving erratically, and they believed the driver was intoxicated.
Deputies went to the location that the caller reported and found a vehicle matching the description. Tristram interacted with the officers and confirmed that the car was the one he complained about.
When the deputies spoke to the woman driving the car, they learned that she was Tristram’s ex-girlfriend. She was not found to be intoxicated.
After finding that the person who called in the report about the woman used a spoofing app, the police traced the call with the records of the company that owns the software. The information allegedly pointed to Tristram.
The New York police reported that they do not have an officer with Tristram’s name, and the Monroe County deputies asserted that Tristram posed as a trooper to harass his ex-girlfriend.
On July 11, Monroe County sheriff’s deputies took Tristram into custody. He was jailed for suspicion of false impersonation of a police officer.
According to jail records, Tristram was released approximately 90 minutes after he was booked.
If you or someone you love is suspected of a criminal offense, contact Orange County criminal defense lawyer Staycie R. Sena at (949) 477-8088 for a consultation now.