TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — Former City of Tallahassee Ethics Officer Julie Meadows-Keefe is facing a stalking charge after being accused of repeatedly harassing the former City of Tallahassee Auditor with whom she once had a romantic relationship.
Meadows-Keefe, 51, was booked into the Leon County Jail Wednesday on a single misdemeanor stalking charge.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Meadows-Keefe and the victim first met in 2014, while Meadows-Keefe was still serving as the Ethics Officer for the Tallahassee Ethics Board. At the time, the victim was employed as the City of Tallahassee Auditor.
Documents said that Meadows-Keefe and the victim "became friends and their relationship developed into a romantic relationship."
Eventually, the victim retired in 2017, but the relationship between Meadows-Keefe and the victim continued.
"[The victim] and [Meadows-Keefe] continued their romantic relationship routinely meeting during the 2018 calendar year..." the probable cause affidavit read, until, according to the victim, Meadows-Keefe became upset and "falsely filed a sexual complaint."
The victim told investigators that the complaint was false and ended by being dismissed.
After that, documents showed the victim avoided contact with Meadows-Keefe. At the beginning of 2019 however, the victim began receiving numerous calls from unknown numbers, prompting the victim to get a new number in July 2019.
Meadows-Keefe resigned from her position as Ethics Officer in February and in March, according to the probable cause affidavit, became employed with a law firm in Tallahassee.
Around this time, the victim again began receiving calls from "random unfamiliar numbers."
[The victim] described these calls at times to come in five or more times in a row in a very short time period," court documents read. "[The victim] suspected these calls were being made by Julie Meadows-Keefe and [the victim] refused to answer the calls to avoid contact with her."
The calls continued throughout 2020, and eventually, the victim answered one of the calls in late September/early October. According to the probable cause affidavit, the caller on the other line was Meadows-Keefe.
"Their conversation led to them reconnecting and continuing their romantic relationship," documents stated.
Investigators said this continued from October to December 2020 but ended when the victim received what appeared to be an email from Meadows-Keefe's ex-husband.
On December 18, 2020, the probable cause affidavit showed the victim tried to end things with Meadows-Keefe over a text. For the next two days, the victim was "bombarded" with calls and texts from Meadows-Keefe until they agreed to meet at a Tallahassee park three days later.
The victim told investigators that the meeting started civilly, but said things took a turn when the victim said the two needed to end their relationship.
According to the victim, Meadows-Keefe got angry and at one point told the victim she had thought about hiring someone "from the mafia" to "beat your brains out" with a baseball bat.
Even though the victim had told Meadows-Keefe to stop the contact, "[the victim] continued to be bombarded by attempted phone calls and electronic text messages from [Meadows-Keefe]. In some of the communication, [Meadows-Keefe] threatened to contact [the victim's] family if [the victim] didn't contact her."
On Christmas Eve, the probable cause affidavit showed the victim met with investigators at the State Attorney's Office to provide them with electronic data corroborating the accusations against Meadows-Keefe.
A few days later, documents revealed an investigator spoke to Meadows-Keefe over the phone, who confirmed that she had been trying to contact the victim. However, she claimed that the victim never "directly told her not to contact [the victim]."
Documents showed the investigator then "clearly warned [Meadows-Keefe] to stop contacting [the victim] and specifically warned [Meadows-Keefe] about the Florida statute on Stalking/Cyber-stalking." The investigator also warned that she would be charged with trespassing if she went onto the victim's property.
Meadows-Keefe agreed not to contact the victim, yet, documents showed the victim continued receiving phone calls from random numbers. Documents said the victim even answered one of those calls and confirmed that Meadows-Keefe was on the other end of the line.
"It was more than clear [Meadows-Keefe's] pattern of conduct to harass [the victim] by electronic communication was not going to stop," investigators wrote in the probable cause affidavit.
On Jan. 7, investigators met with the victim to submit the victim's cellphone to the FDLE crime lab for collection of evidence. Based on the evidence, probable cause was found to charge Meadows-Keefe with stalking.
She was arrested on Monday and is due for a first appearance in court Tuesday morning.
ABC 27 reached out to the State Attorney's Office, though they said they were unable to release any additional records at this time. We're also reaching out to Meadows-Keefe's attorney for comment.
