A 16-year veteran Dallas police officer has turned himself in for stalking his ex-wife and burglarizing her home late last year, the department announced.
Sgt. Gregory Epley, Jr. allegedly stalked his now-ex-wife and entered her Aubrey, Texas home without her knowledge in October of last year. Epley and his wife had been in the midst of a bad divorce since June of 2015 and were separated at the time, according to a criminal report.
“Gregory had made comments [to his ex-wife in which] he stated that her new residence is a fire hazard and told her where things were placed inside the house and he has never been in it,” the October report reads.
Epley also had taken photos inside the house, according to the report. His ex-wife told police she didn’t know how Epley would have gotten into the home.
In an affidavit contained in a request for a protective order obtained by WFAA, Epley’s ex-wife claimed Epley’s girlfriend was with him when he broke in. She told police she was missing birth certificates and social security information for her and their children after the break-in.
She also claimed that, in June of 2015, Epley had “pulled her hair and locked her inside a bathroom with him.” He had done this “numerous” times, she said in the affidavit, but she “did not report these incidents because he is a Dallas Police Sergeant and she feared reporting the incident would not result in anything.”
The behavior started when Sgt. Epley was asked to pay child support, according to the report. He and his ex-wife have four children together.
Epley turned himself in to the Denton County Sheriff’s Office Wednesday.
WFAA’s Tanya Eiserer, who was reporting for the Dallas Morning News at the time, wrote in 2009 about Epley’s battle with a rare tongue cancer. His then-wife was quoted in the article saying Epley was too sick to work.
A GoFundMe page was started in September 2016, saying Epley had begun a second battle with cancer and asking for donations. He had half of his jaw removed as part of the treatment, according to the site, which says $6,400 had been raised over a seven-month period.
Epley, who joined the Dallas Police Department in 2000 and is currently assigned to the Northeast Patrol Division, has been placed on administrative leave while an internal affairs investigation is conducted.
