Former Philadelphia cop pleads guilty to harassment in stalking case

A former Philadelphia police officer who stalked and harassed an ex-girlfriend with hundreds of phone calls, yelled obscenities at her and her family as he repeatedly drove past her house, and made unannounced visits for years after their relationship ended pleaded guilty to stalking Wednesday.

Robert McDonald, 49, who spent 22 years with the department, pleaded guilty to first-degree stalking Wednesday morning before Common Pleas Court Judge Zachary C. Shaffer. As part of the plea deal, McDonald will serve one year of probation and is not allowed to contact the woman he stalked.

After a brief relationship in the spring of 2016, McDonald stalked and harassed the woman until at least 2019, according to court records. The woman filed three complaints with the department’s Internal Affairs Division over McDonald’s behavior.

In court Wednesday, McDonald apologized for his actions.

“I’m just very sorry for everything I did,” he said.

McDonald and his attorney, Fortunato Perri Jr., both declined to comment outside the courtroom. Assistant District Attorney Brian Collins declined to comment other than to say he was happy that the case was resolved.

McDonald met the woman at a restaurant where she worked and they dated for about two months, according to the woman’s testimony at a 2020 court hearing.

After the woman broke up with McDonald, she said, he began a campaign of harassment that lasted more than three years.

The woman first filed a complaint with the department’s Internal Affairs Division in March 2018, providing police the voice and text messages McDonald had left her. She later withdrew the complaint, she said, fearing for her safety and that of her family.

“He was a police officer. He had possession of weapons. I was afraid he was going to do something to me or my family,” she said in court in 2020.

When he continued to harass her, she filed a second complaint, which prompted no discipline.

In May 2019, the woman spotted McDonald walking a half a block from her house and filed a third complaint. Police investigated, set up surveillance, and observed him repeatedly driving by her house, prompting the department to recommend that the District Attorney’s Office file criminal charges.