Riviera police: Officer fired in sex case promised teen tattoo, piercings, puppy

RIVIERA BEACH — The first time they met, Riviera Beach police officer Marc Joseph was responding to a dispute at the 17-year-old’s home.

The second time was a few hours later, early on Sept. 3, when the 28-year-old police officer returned to the teen’s home to ask for her telephone number, she told Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office investigators.

Over the next month, Joseph and the 17-year-old had numerous sexual encounters, exchanged nearly 900 text messages, many sexually explicit, and spent a night in a Palm Beach Gardens hotel, sheriff’s records show.

On Thursday, Joseph turned himself in to the sheriff’s office and he was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail on two counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor. The city’s police department announced that evening that it fired Joseph, who had been with the department since July 2018.

During a bail hearing Friday morning, an assistant state attorney called Joseph’s reported behavior a “significant breach of public trust.”

Joseph’s attorney, Steven Sessa, told Circuit Judge Ted Booras that Joseph reached out to him a month ago about the allegations, noting that Joseph voluntarily came in to the sheriff’s office on Thursday.

“The self-surrender shows he’s not a flight risk, though he may be a danger to the community,” Booras commented before setting bail at $10,000.

Booras also ordered that Joseph have no contact with anyone under the age of 18.

Joseph had been on paid administrative leave since Sept. 30 when the 17-year-old and her grandmother came to the department to report the illegal relationship.

Sheriff’s investigators noted that the teen reported the relationship because she was upset that Joseph had not followed through on his promises of a tattoo, piercings and a puppy. They argued that that showed her “maturity level, age inappropriateness and inability to consent to this relationship.”

The age of consent in Florida is 18 years old, according to Florida Statutes. People between the ages of 16 and 17 can give consent to a partner up to the age of 23. Anyone 24 years old or older commits a felony if he or she engages in sexual activity with someone under the age of 18.

Joseph was aware of how old the girl was, she told authorities. He referenced her age in multiple text messages writing in one, “I can’t wait till (sic) you turn 18.”

In another text Joseph, who told the teen he was married and had two children, wrote, "Hopefully I can be your bf 1 day. Can't wait to take you out."

Two days after Joseph investigated an incident at the teen’s home, they met up outside a church after his shift ended and engaged in sex acts, the teen said.

Five days later, he took her to dinner at a Red Lobster in West Palm Beach and then booked them a room in a Best Western in Palm Beach Gardens where they had sex, which is considered rape under Florida statutes because she is not old enough to consent.

Records indicate that during that month Joseph repeatedly stopped by the teen’s home in uniform during work breaks.

Interim police chief clarifying difference between cases of two officers terminated for inappropriate relationships with a minor: both fired but only one is facing criminal charges. pic.twitter.com/RNzQnzJhib

— Olivia Hitchcock (@ohitchcock) November 15, 2019

Joseph’s arrest comes days after the city fired another police officer for an inappropriate, though not illegal, relationship with an 18-year-old, Interim Police Chief Spencer Rozier said during a news conference Friday.

Officer Verley Moyton had a one-time consensual sexual encounter with an 18-year-old high school student he met through the Police Officer Explorer Program, Rozier said.

Police learned of that encounter in January when police were investigating another case involving the teen. The nature of that investigation was not immediately clear.

Rozier said the department consulted with two other law-enforcement agencies to determine whether Moyton should face criminal charges. Because the teen is an adult, those agencies advised that charges would not be filed.

Moyton, a school resource officer who had been with the department since 2011 and had been assigned to Bethune and Lincoln elementary schools, was fired Nov. 4 after an internal-affairs investigation ruled that the incident violated the department’s policies and those of the Explorer program.

City manager addressing investigations: pic.twitter.com/YEiiOVTrLO

— Olivia Hitchcock (@ohitchcock) November 15, 2019

“Holistically as an agency we’re going to be better,” City Manager Jonathan Evans said Friday. “We’re going to do better.”

Evans mentioned that the city is looking into re-training officers in light of the two inappropriate, and in Joseph’s case illegal, sexual relationships.

Additionally, city officials plan to meet with the families of students in the explorer program.

“Every agency has their share of people they have to deal with,” Rozier said. “In this case, as soon as we found out about it, we took steps to address the problem and to not only let the public know that our standards are high, but support the men and women who do work hard and who do abide by our standards.

“We don’t want their reputation tarnished, either.”

ohitchcock@pbpost.com

@ohitchcock