Officer fired for sexual relationship with woman he met on the job

BOYNTON BEACH — A Boynton Beach Police officer with more than two decades of experience and a track record of successfully talking people out of crises has been fired after he formed a personal, sexual relationship with a woman whom he met while on the job.

Officer Patrick Monteith, 49, was the subject of an Internal Affairs investigation that began last year after the woman filed a complaint with the police department in late April 2022. It’s unclear when the two first met.

He was found to have violated department policies in his relationship with the woman by sharing police department information with her, by forming a sexual relationship with someone in need of services, by recording a sex act of himself in his marked unit, by diverting himself from his duties as an officer and by violating the department’s code of ethics, the summary said.

The investigation concluded in October, and Monteith was officially fired March 1, Officer Holly Picciano, a spokesperson for Boynton Beach Police, said in an email.

Monteith went to the woman’s home for a welfare check as she struggled with an alcohol addiction and was unable to get treatment, according to an Internal Affairs summary provided to Chief Joe DeGiulio in October. Monteith gave the woman his personal phone number.

Six days after Monteith met the woman, he sent her a sexually explicit video of himself that he recorded while in uniform and on duty in his marked patrol car, the summary said. He frequently called her while working, texted her about work-related things and visited her home.

Monteith admitted to sending the explicit video “but minimized the offense as he maintained it occurred within the privacy of his assigned marked vehicle,” the summary said.

The night Monteith first arrived at the woman’s home, he later came back after she called him and asked for him to bring a drink as she was experiencing alcohol withdrawal, the summary said. The woman said Monteith came into her house and exposed himself.

Monteith denied that but admitted he returned there after she asked him for a drink and candy. He did not tell dispatch he went back to the home and did not document it or turn on his body-worn camera, which is required by policy, the summary said.

The woman said in her complaint that she felt the relationship was non-consensual because of his position as an officer who had a key to her home and access to guns, making her afraid Monteith would retaliate against her if she reported it, the summary said. The officer said their relationship with consensual, though he was “fully aware” of the difficulties she was experiencing with alcoholism.

Monteith joined the department in August 2001. In 2015, he was a member of the Crisis Intervention and Hostage Negotiation Team and talked a suicidal man armed with a knife out of his car and convinced him to throw away the knife, the police department said in a Facebook post from May 2015.

In April 2016, Monteith was given a heroism award after having talked another suicidal man out of crisis and having rescued a man from a burning building, the department said in another Facebook post.

He had also been awarded as an officer of the month by the Kiwanis Club of Boynton Beach in January 2016.

The Palm Beach County Police Benevolent Association, which represents Boynton Beach Police officers, could not be reached Friday evening.

Monteith was on administrative leave with pay during the investigation and until his termination, said Picciano.

“Police officers are called to handle a wide variety of community problems and are given a great deal of authority and discretion when performing their jobs,” wrote Operations Division Assistant Chief John Dale in his memo to DeGiulio recommending the termination. “Officers must tirelessly strive each day to maintain the trust of those they service to ensure their actions are perceived as legitimate. They must seek to help and protect those in need. The violations of Officer Monteith are serious and create a significant negative impact on the Department and its relationship with the community.”

The Sun Sentinel is not identifying the woman because of the nature of the complaint.