BOSTON, April 9, 2014—A private investigator from Scituate who once worked for the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department was arraigned today for allegedly stalking, harassing, and threatening former co-workers during more than a year of anonymous phone calls, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

JOSEPH ALLEN (D.O.B. 4/13/60) was arrested this morning by Massachusetts State Police and Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins’ Investigative Division. He was arraigned in the Boston Municipal Court this afternoon on three counts of threats to commit a crime, two counts of annoying or harassing telephone calls, two counts of criminal harassment, and one count of stalking.

Judge Thomas C. Horgan imposed $2,000 cash bail and, at the request of Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Walsh, ordered that Allen wear a GPS monitoring device if he posts that amount. Horgan ordered Allen to stay away from and have no contact with any of the victims while the case is pending.

Today’s charges in the BMC reflect offenses linked to two victims. Allen is expected to face additional charges at a future date in Chelsea District Court related to a third victim, and authorities are investigating potential offenses against a fourth victim. Two of the victims are current employees of the Suffolk Sheriff’s Department and two are former employees.

Walsh told the court that the victims have been subjected to anonymous phone calls from a blocked number and, in one case, a letter. He said the contact was initially benign but over time escalated to disturbing and threatening. The calls were made to the victims’ homes, places of employment, and personal cell phones. In some instances, the victims’ children answered the calls, placing them in fear as well. One victim was called 69 times between January 2013 and February of this year.

Using search warrants and subpoenas, investigators obtained the phone number of the suspect phone. It was traced back to a disposable TracPhone with no registered subscriber information. They did learn, however, that this phone had hit off a cell tower in Scituate more than 1,000 times since 2013 – more than all other towers combined.

Based on the content of the calls, investigators believed that the caller had some prior professional link to the victims and some prior military service. Sheriff’s investigators compiled a list of all current and former employees who had reported living in Scituate and those who had served in the military. Allen fit both criteria, and had resigned in 2004.

After performing additional background investigation into Allen’s history with the victims, investigators obtained Suffolk Superior Court search warrants for Allen’s residence and vehicle. At about 8:00 this morning, they executed those warrants and recovered the phone in question inside his home office.

Allen was represented today by attorney Douglas Greenhaus. He will return to the BMC on June 23. His Chelsea arraignment date has not yet been scheduled.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.