Police: ex-official broke curfew
Greenberg looked for wife in South Florida, report says
A day after a federal magistrate ordered Joel Greenberg to remain in jail for violating his curfew, new details emerged as to why Jupiter police were called early Sunday for an incident involving the former Seminole County tax collector.
Greenberg left his Heathrow home just before 5 a.m. on Sunday and drove to his mother-in-law’s condominium in Jupiter to look for his wife, Abby Greenberg, according to a police incident report and federal prosecutors.
Greenberg — who faces 14 federal charges, including stalking, identity theft and sex trafficking of a minor — was under an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew and not allowed to travel outside the Central Florida area, according to the conditions of his bond release.
Just over two hours later, his mother-in-law called police in Jupiter to say that Greenberg showed up uninvited to look for Abby Greenberg and asked that he be removed from the home, according to an incident report.
Abby Greenberg, who was not at her mother’s home at the time, told police that she left the couple’s Lake Mary home to “take a break from the stressful situation with Joel,” the report said. She added that Greenberg tracked her using her SnapChat social media account.
After running a background check, the Jupiter officer noticed that Greenberg was under federal probation related to a stalking charge.
Greenberg is charged with falsely accusing a political opponent and teacher during last year’s Republican primary race of sexual misconduct and being a white supremacist. Greenberg allegedly created fake Twitter and Facebook accounts to post the information and posed as concerned students in letters to the school where the victim works.
The officer said he was not able to arrest Greenberg on Sunday for violation of probation because he was unable to reach Greenberg’s probation officer to determine if he was allowed to travel to Jupiter.
Greenberg eventually left his mother-in-law’s home without incident, according to the police report.
On Tuesday, a federal judge in Orlando issued an arrest warrant for Greenberg for violating his probation. He was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service that night and booked into the Seminole County Jail at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday.
That afternoon, U.S. Magistrate Embry Kidd said Greenberg violated the conditions of his pre-trial release by not abiding with his curfew and traveling outside the area. He ordered Greenberg to remain in the Seminole County Jail.
At that hearing, Greenberg’s attorney, Fritz Scheller, said that Greenberg traveled to Jupiter “for a family matter.”
At 7:45 a.m. Thursday,
Greenberg was released from the jail and into the custody of U.S. Marshals Service, according to a Seminole sheriff ’s spokesman.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Marshals Service said she could not answer where Greenberg is being detained or why he was transferred out of the Seminole Jail.
“We do not disclose that information,” said Penelope Knox, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Marshal’s Service.