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A Pennsylvania man posed as a stalker, sending himself and his girlfriend threatening text messages, all as a ploy to try to find out if she had been cheating, authorities said.
Jamey Dumeus, 30, of Stroudsburg, has been charged with filing a false police report, unsworn falsification to authorities, tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, false reports to law enforcement, and obstructing administration of law or other governmental function, following an investigation by the Criminal Investigations Division of the Monroe County Office of the District Attorney.
It all began last August, when Dumeus and his girlfriend showed up at the offices of the Criminal Investigations Division to report that they were being stalked and harassed by an unknown individual, according to a release from Eric J. Kerchner, Chief Monroe County Detective.
The couple reported receiving numerous anonymous text messages disparaging Dumeus' girlfriend, accusing her of infidelity, and threatening to expose her “secrets” to Dumeus over the course of the last eight months, the release says.
"In one such exchange, this anonymous individual extorted money from the girlfriend in exchange for stopping the harassment," authorities said. "Dumeus also reported having received similar messages on Instagram."
Dumeus and his girlfriend said that this "unknown individual" had access to the girlfriend’s Google Photos account, obtained intimate photos that she had taken for an ex-boyfriend several years ago, and sent them to Dumeus as evidence of his girlfriend’s continued romantic involvement with the ex-boyfriend, police said.
Both Dumeus and his girlfriend reported that they didn’t know the identity of the person sending these text messages and provided copies and screenshots of the harassing messages.
"Through their investigation, detectives from the Criminal Investigations Division were able to tie these messages to Dumeus and show that he was the individual sending these messages to his girlfriend and to himself," the DA's office said.
"When confronted by detectives, Dumeus admitted to sending the messages, stating that he did so as a way to broach the topic of his suspicions of his girlfriend’s past and current infidelity without appearing to be mistrustful of her, which would result in an argument."
Investigators believe that his girlfriend didn’t know that Dumeus was the person sending the messages.
Dumeus' charges were filed with Magisterial District Judge Kristina Anzini of Stroudsburg. He will appear for a preliminary hearing at a later date before MDJ Anzini.
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