EAST GREENWICH, R.I. (WPRI) — An East Greenwich police officer, suspended last year for sexting a woman he’d arrested only hours before, was hit with a temporary restraining order for allegedly cyberstalking his ex-girlfriend.
The order granted Tuesday in Kent County District Court alleges Officer Scott Cole sent several harassing messages to his former live-in girlfriend over the past month with his telephone and through social media.
In her affidavit, the alleged victim wrote that she asked Cole, 31, to leave her alone and blocked his phone number.
But she claimed he used social media to send additional messages and allegedly threaten her “future and reputation as an aspiring police officer.”
Her statement included several quoted messages that she said were sent since Aug. 17 and peppered with profanity and a racial slur meant to refer to Hispanics.
“You like [racial slur] now,” she claims Cole wrote in one message. “Take my gun and eat it. That’s how much I care.”
On Wednesday, Cole was ordered not to have any contact with her for a period of up to three years and told to surrender all firearms within 72 hours of receiving the order.
A hearing on the merits of the case is scheduled for next month.
East Greenwich Police Chief Stephen Brown said he is looking into the matter.
Rhode Island State Police Captain John Alfred confirmed the agency is investigating a cyberstalking case involving an East Greenwich police officer but said no one has been charged and he could not release the officer’s name at this time.
Cole has had a legally difficult 17 months, starting with a DUI arrest in West Warwick in April 2018. He served an alternate one-year sentence in that case through the state Veterans Court.
In August, Cole was suspended with pay after a 27-year-old woman claimed he sent her a lewd picture the day he arrested her for DUI.
According to her attorney and a text that included a picture, Cole solicited oral sex within hours of the early morning arrest.
Another text indicated Cole offered her advice about the DUI process.
East Greenwich began the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights process to terminate Cole last year but dropped the case in April.
East Greenwich Assistant Town Solicitor Michael Ursillo told Target 12 at the time he could not release any details of the “confidential agreement” with Cole, but he said the “town is protected from anything that might go wrong in the future.”
Cole returned to duty in May.
Cole, who has not responded to numerous requests for comment, is one of a string of East Greenwich police officers with recent legal issues, and the second whose name is currently on a restraining order.
Humberto “Bert” Montalban, the now-former student resource officer at Cole Middle School, was arrested in July on misdemeanor cyberharassment and cyberstalking charges for allegedly threatening to ruin his ex-girlfriend’s reputation with what she claimed was a secretly recorded sex video.
Montalban, currently suspended with pay, is the defendant in a restraining order involving the alleged victim in the case.
(Lt. Paul Nahrgang, who took over Montalban’s school post this month, was convicted of misdemeanor assault in 2013 for grabbing a prisoner around the neck in an East Greenwich jail cell.)
Mark Edmonds, 26, resigned from EGPD in June after he was charged by Pawtucket police with three domestic violence felonies for allegedly choking and pointing a gun at his wife.
Edmonds pleaded not guilty last month to 10 domestic violence counts.
If you have something for Target 12 to investigate send Walt an email at wbuteau@wpri.com and you can follow him on Twitter @wbuteau.
