FORMAL COMPLAINT AGAINST CPL. VITO CELIBERTI

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1 FORMAL COMPLAINT AGAINST CPL. VITO CELIBERTI November 2010 Around November 16/17, I called CCSO and spoke with an intake officer and told him that I wanted to file a report because I believed that my ex-boyfriend had posted sexually explicit pictures of me on the Internet. 1 He told me that he would forward the report to the investigator, who was Vito Celiberti. On November 17, I spoke with Officer Celiberti, who said that he would look into my case. 2 On November 18, Officer Celiberti told me that he had looked over my case and, unfortunately, there was 3 nothing that he could do. Years later, I would find out that he had never filed a report. A case had never even been opened for investigation October 2011 (One year later) On October 27, I filed a second report with Officer Celiberti at the CCSO North Naples substation. 4 He spoke with me for three hours. Although he said that there was no law that could protect me, he gave me his business card and told me that he would do his best to help me out. See cell phone records. See cell phone records. See cell phone records. 4 See cell phone records.! 1

2 He called me a couple times to follow up on things, and during one of our conversations, he gave me his personal cell number. Within one week, he stated that my case was closed, and he asked me out on a date. When he arrived at my house, he seemed nervous, scanning the house as he walked in. Later on in our relationship, he explained his nervousness, saying,"i thought the Sheriff's Department was setting me up." November January 2012 Vito lived in a trailer that was located in the parking lot of a high school located on Immokalee Road. He explained that he lived there so that he could serve as a guard for the school, ensuring that it was protected. Although there were several parking spaces in front of his trailer, there were only a few that were officially reserved for him. The public was free to park in the remaining ones. Still, he would get angry when people parked in them. One night, a black Mercedes parked in one of the spaces around Vito's reserved spaces. Vito was helping me carry in some of my personal belongings, which were contained in small baskets, from my car to his trailer. During one of his trips back into the trailer, he "keyed" the Mercedes with the edge of a basket. The car was pointed nose out, so he scraped the left side of the car from the driver's seat to the back of the car.! 2

3 Afterwards, he turned to me, smirked, and said, "Do you know how much it's gonna cost that guy to fix his car?" January 2012?? 5 In January, I tried to leave Vito. He said, "You can stay or you can leave. But if you leave, you can't take your stuff with you." It didn't make sense to me. But I wasn't familiar with these kinds of laws, and he had even offered his phone to me, saying, "Call a deputy. He'll tell you the same thing." I tried taking my belongings, but he prevented me from taking them by either locking me out of the bedroom, kicking my stuff into the closet and physically blocking access to the closet door, or standing directly in front on my belongings so that I could not move around him to get them. I had called my mother to tell her of my plans to move out of Vito's house, so she drove over to his house with her friend to help me pack. When Vito saw my mother pull her car outside of his house, he ran out of the house and threatened to cite her for trespassing, but she would not leave because she was concerned for my safety. Vito called dispatch so he could cite her for trespassing. Before the police arrived, Vito inserted himself into my mother's car and yanked her keys from her car ignition, so she could not leave. 6 5 See CAD Report. 6 See CAD Report! 3

4 Thereafter, a man pulled up in a K-9 car. He was tall, well built, and he had a slight southern accent. As he looked down at me, with his arms folded, he asked me what was going on. Believing that he was an officer who had been dispatched to the scene, I confided that I believed Vito was going through my computer and my phone. I told him that Vito had physically blocked me from taking my belongings, and I asked him if it was legal for him to do that. The officer replied, "You're a pretty girl. If you were my wife, I would do the same thing." At this point, my heart sank. I felt that he was more interested in protecting Vito than in protecting me. At the time, I didn't realize that it was possible that, although this man may have been an officer, this was Vito's friend, and Vito had personally called and asked him to come by. 7 Eventually, two more police officers arrived on the scene. But I did not trust them. Since the first officer sided with Vito, I believed that they would side with him as well. As a result, I did not tell them the truth, which was that Vito was keeping my personal property hostage, and that's why I changed my mind to stay with him. 7 See Celiberti's cell/home phone records.! 4

5 They said that if my mother did not leave, they had to authority to put my mother in jail. I explained that my mother was simply concerned for me, and I asked them not to cite her. One of the officers, an African-American, seemed to really try to get to the bottom of things, and I appreciate his efforts. I hope that he is commended for it. In the end, I believed Vito. I believed that I did not have the right to my own belongings because they were located on his property. If I had known that I had the right to take my property with me, I would not have stayed. Unbeknownst to Vito, my mother later connected me with the Naples Women's Shelter, who were very supportive of me. They informed me that I had a right to my property, and they said that I could ask for a police escort when I was ready to leave next time. They also mentioned that Sheriff Rambosk was very supportive of the Shelter and their work in protecting victims. February A couple of weeks later, I made plans to move out again. I called my mother, who agreed to call for a police escort in the event that Vito would try withholding my possessions from me again. Before my mother or the police escorts arrived, I started moving my property out of Vito's house. Contrary to last time, Vito did not block me from taking my possessions. 8 See CAD report.! 5

6 Eventually, my mother and the police arrived. An officer came to the front door and asked Vito and me what was going on. He kept referring to Vito as "buddy." I explained that Vito had previously refused to let me take my property with me, and that's why he was dispatched as an escort. The officer turned to Vito and said, "Are you going to let her take her stuff this time?" Vito glared at me and said, "I want you to tell the deputy that I didn't falsely imprison you." I didn't understand what the term "false imprisonment" meant. I said, "I told the officer that you wouldn't let me take my stuff last time, and that's why I stayed." Vito's eye widened for a split second. He then agreed to let me have full access to my property. I proceeded to pack everything into my car. As I was walking back into the house to get more of my belongings, I overheard the officer say to Vito, "You know that you can't prevent her from taking her stuff, right?" Vito quietly replied, "I know."! 6

7 When the officer wrote his report of the incident, he did not mention my name or Vito's name, how I indicated that Vito had taken my property hostage, or how Vito had demanded that I say that he had not falsely imprisoned me. Instead, he wrote a very ambiguous statement: "Someone said something about not letting someone leave." 9 It is my belief that he did this in order to protect Vito. It didn't do much to instill my faith in law enforcement. March 2012-May 2012 Vito and I continued to see each other on and off although I had moved out. Eventually, we broke up for good. June 2012 One night, I was at the Naples Beach Club with two of my friends, one of whom was a male. Although I was not in a relationship with Vito anymore, Vito sent me text messages that accused me of being with another man. 8:38pm "So much for your waiting period between guys and can't move on when you love someone. WOW!" he texted. 9 See CAD Report.! 7

8 I didn't respond. He then sent a text to me, as if it were meant for one of his friends but had been "accidentally" been sent to me. In my seven months of dating him, he had never accidentally sent a text to me. 9:17pm "Exactly. She had a lot of us fooled. You can call it smoke n mirrors. Delusional. Projection. While she was accusing me she was the one being treacherous!" I didn't respond, but he continued to text me. 9:38pm "Bottom line is that you could move on so quickly after professing your love n commitment to me. You had this secret world you were creating n now out exploring with your "dear friends" Gab has wanted you with someone from her circle. I guess she succeeded. And in your mine [sic] So [sic]did you." He continued. "You know how I feel n deal with betrayal." He referred to this man as the "new guy," and challenged him. 10:02pm! 8

9 "Feel free to have him call." I did not respond, and Vito got increasingly angry. This time, he threatened me with what would hurt me the most -- he threatened to share two sexually explicit videos of me. 12:31am "If [the new guy] ever wants to compare video footage let me know. I'll include the old [sexually explicit video] with [your exboyfriend] as well it was pretty lame. Kind of like a gorilla fucking a pretzel stick. Lost momentum when he had to find a [sic] 10 condum." It shook me up. Since he had been assigned to my case in which my sexually explicit photos had been posted, he knew the humiliation and devastation I had suffered. And now he was using it against me. I didn't respond to him. I thought about filing a complaint with the CCSO, but I was scared. During our relationship, Vito had told me that he had friends in Internal Affairs, the SWAT team, and the FBI, 10 In the text, "he" refers to the new guy; "one" refers to a sexually explicit video; "flapo-skin" and "gorilla" refers to my ex-boyfriend who is a bodybuilder with a flap of abdominal skin due to extreme weight loss; and "pretzel stick" refers to me as I am very thin.! 9

10 so I was afraid that I would not be taken me seriously. Not satisfied that he had hurt or scared me enough, he texted me again the next day. June 4, :59pm "Be careful what you post and say about me. It s a smaller town than you think. Play nice." I responded. 2:02pm "You have the nerve to threaten me with distribution of an intimate video of me and now you're sending me THIS? Grow up, Vito, and watch what YOU say." Vito chose to issue another veiled threat. 2:05pm "Just be careful with your future choices when it comes to me." 11 I was exasperated and wanted him to stop. 11 I do not know whether Vito was on-duty or off-duty when he sent all of his text messages.! 10

11 2:12pm "You're walking into dangerous territory if you continue to threaten me. My only choice when it comes to you is to stay the hell away from you and that's when I've been doing but you keep on insisting on contacting me. Please just leave me alone. I just want peace." He turned my attempt to defend myself around on me, claiming that I was threatening him. He then attempted to persuade me to talk things over with him. But I asked him to refrain from contacting to me. 2:42pm PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE. DON T CALL ME, DON'T TEXT ME, DON'T ME. I JUST WANT YOU TO LEAVE ME ALONE. STOP CONTACTING ME. Despite my pleading to leave me alone, Vito continued to contact me for the next year. 12 As an investigator who is familiar with stalking laws, he knew how to stay under the radar, and he found creative ways to contact me. He mostly pretended to "accidentally" send text messages to me that were meant for other people. Most texts made references to having sex with other women ("I will make 12 See cell phone records.! 11

12 Fifty Shades of Grey look like a Dr. Suess book") and some included pictures of him in a couple of places, showing that he was having a good time. He even went so far as to have his best friend send me a text that sang Vito's praises. But one of his last texts was a departure from his previous texts. November 22, :23pm "Happy Thanksgiving! I want to say I am thankful for the good times we shared and what I learned through the bad times. I wish true happiness for you." I breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe, I thought, he would finally stop contacting me. Maybe he had let go. A few hours later, I received a Google alert that my explicit pictures had just been posted on a notorious revenge porn website by an anonymous person. Whether it was Vito following through on his threat to share photos of me -- I don't know. I didn't have the IP address of the anonymous person who posted them. But the FBI and Homeland Security shut down the website over a year ago, so I'm hoping they have the IP address of the user who posted my pictures. I considered filing a complaint with the CCSO again about everything that Vito had done, but again recalled Vito's comment! 12

13 that he had friends in Internal Affairs, the SWAT team, and the FBI. Because of these statements, and due to my experiences with Vito and the acts of a few other officers, my trust in law enforcement was nil. Final Note It's taken a lot of courage for me to finally file this complaint. I hope you understand now why I didn't. My biggest fear, based on my experiences, is that my complaint will not be taken seriously, and I will relive the negative experiences all over again. I want to believe that the acts referred to in this complaint can be attributed to a few rogue officers. I want to believe that these officers are the exception, rather than the rule. There are good officers in the CCSO. I know this. The African American officer who was present during the first CAD incident did his best to get to the bottom of things, and really seemed to care. A couple years later, a female officer who came to my house was extremely courteous and professional as I filed a report. I am grateful for both of these officers. Based on my experiences these past few years, I believe that, many times, good officers are silenced into not reporting the acts of rogue officers because they fear retaliation from them. I believe that this tradition of silence is passed on to victims, who fear the same retaliation.! 13

14 Thanks for your time. Bekah Wells! 14

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