He Was a ‘Bad Monkey’ — Florida Cop Arrested for Stalking Apple TV Extra
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A Florida Keys sheriff’s deputy abused his access to official law enforcement databases to stalk a woman he met on the set of the popular Apple TV series Bad Monkey, according to reports from Florida’s Local 10 News and 404 Media.
Deputy Lamar Eliseo Roman, 28, allegedly used restricted police information to pull the woman over on US 1, almost causing a head-on collision in his enthusiasm to stop her. Roman has since been arrested and relieved of his badge.
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office warrant report says that on February 3, Roman (who had been with the MCSO for less than a year) was working security on the set of Bad Monkey, a popular black comedy crime drama series streamed on Apple TV. The show stars Vince Vaughn and is based on a book of the same title by well-known South Florida author Carl Hiaasen.
When Roman saw the woman getting off the extras bus that day, he began immediately “whistling at her” and “catcalling her” very loudly. He was heard to say things like, “oh my god, why didn’t nobody tell me we were bringing models to [the] set.”
Investigators say he eventually made his move, “flirting and joking” with her, even though the woman told him she already had a boyfriend. While the pair are said to have exchanged names and cellphone numbers, it’s not entirely clear how willingly the woman did so. 404 Media reported that she told investigators “she was immediately uncomfortable with the situation,” and tried to be “standoffish” to deter Roman. She also wasn’t sure if he was a real cop or simply playing one on the show.
Roman allegedly told her, “I need your name and number just in case I pull you over someday,” and pressured the woman into giving him her Instagram handle, after which she was “pulled away by other extras who she knew and the others acknowledged Deputy Roman would not leave [her] alone.” Roman later sent her a direct message on Instagram.
After failing to receive a response, Roman allegedly used Florida’s Driver and Vehicle Information Database (DAVID) and the Florida Crime Information Center/National Crime Information Center (FCIC/NCIC) databases to look up information about the woman, going so far as to track her by adding her license plate information to a “hotlist” in the Guardian automated license plate reader system, which is only supposed to be used by police officers looking for stolen vehicles or specific people suspected of crimes.
While on patrol on February 19, Roman received an alert that her license plate had been spotted by the Guardian system. Dashcam videos show Roman speeding as fast as 70 mph in a 55 mph zone on US 1, passing three vehicles, according to the report.
The video shows Roman passing a dump truck in a no-passing zone, then immediately crossing over a double-yellow line to pass another truck. He then overtakes a third vehicle, “almost [causing] a head-on collision while passing as a white truck traveling northbound had to veer off the roadway” in order to avoid the collision.
Roman pulled the woman over in front of Bobalu’s Southern Café on Big Coppitt Key a few minutes later, where his in-car camera captured video, but not audio, of the traffic stop. Roman didn’t have his microphone turned on.
The woman told investigators that the stop made her “uncomfortable” due to comments made by Roman, such as, “Oh, I thought you had a boyfriend.” He also asked her why she hadn’t followed him back on Instagram.
When the woman asked him how he knew it was her, he allegedly replied, “I told you I’d find you and pull you over. And I was hoping your boyfriend was in the car so I can pull him out and give him a hard time.”
Roman never logged the traffic stop.
When confronted in a March 4 interview, Roman fessed up that he had indeed been a “Bad Monkey.” Investigators said Roman told them he “didn’t need to (check the DAVID database), but, I don’t know, I knew right when I did that, I was like ‘fu#$.’”
Roman told investigators, that when he performed the traffic stop, “I was just going to say ‘hi,’ you know, ‘got you’ and we were laughing and then that’s kind of it.”
When a detective asked, “so you were pursuing her in an effort to just stop her and say ‘hey?’” Roman replied, “yeah, I know it’s stupid.”
“I just apologize for you guys to have to do this you know. That’s it. I mean, it’s a tough month and I saw a shiny thing and teasing and all that and I knew that when I put that I’m like ‘f—,’ and that’s why I just like I stopped right after and nothing else,” Roman told investigators.
While the woman declined to press charges against Deputy Roman, the Sheriff’s office wasn’t so magnanimous, arresting him on the charge of accessing a computer or electronic device without proper authority.
In a brief statement following Roman’s arrest, Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay said he was “committed to keeping this community informed of significant events that occur in this agency — good and bad.”
