On a sunny morning in February 2023, videographer Thomas Roark hurried to a small cafe near San Diego’s Pacific Beach to meet with an executive of Blenders Eyewear, the maker of trendy sunglasses and ski goggles.
Roark, 26, was excited to pitch recent footage he shot in Hawaii to the company’s marketing manager in hopes of landing a long-term contract with Blenders. Roark’s business partner couldn’t attend the meeting, but agreed to call in at 10:30 a.m.
When his phone rang precisely at the preappointed time, Roark put the call on speaker so the marketing manager could hear.
“You’re a f****** Nazi,” raged a man from the other end of the line .”You’re going to pay for what you did, you f****** white supremacist piece of s***.”
Roark was mortified and quickly disconnected the call. But the damage was already done.
“I immediately hung up the phone and turned ghostly pale in shock as the client, who I had just spent 10 minutes getting to know for the first time, looked at me, mouth wide open,” Roark said in an interview.
For the next 30 minutes, Roark explained the entire sordid tale to the stunned marketing manager.
Roark identified the caller as Joseph Bryce Freeman, an alleged 25-year-old serial stalker believed to be living in the Los Angeles area. Freeman, he said, had upended his life, tormented his family, and ruined the reputations of friends with a barrage of profane, threatening phone calls and texts spewing wild, baseless accusations.
“I didn’t even have time to discuss the content and project,” Roark said. “That was the first and only time I worked with that client, and they didn’t book me again.”
As it turns out, Roark wasn’t the only one targeted by Freeman.
From July 2022 to March 2023, Freeman also allegedly pestered at least 18 others — in San Diego and Orange counties as well as Connecticut, Florida and Texas — in addition to some of their friends, family members and business associates, according to numerous victims who spoke with the Southern California News Group.
Several said they were tormented, and some feared for their safety because of the alleged stalking. One victim, though, called Freeman “a lost soul” and befriended him, but nevertheless faced his wrath after a spat when they spent some time together.
Additionally, there were concerns that Freeman, a low-level employee for American, was trying to access parts of airplanes where he didn’t belong and areas of at least one airport where he wasn’t authorized to be.
Victims unite, fight back
Many of the victims didn’t know each other before the harassment began.
“For all of us SoCal people, it (the harassment) spread via us all being friends on Instagram, (and) him seeing people we tagged in posts, stories and comments,” said Roark, who remains puzzled why Freeman targeted him. “Clearly, for an unknown reason, he chose random people he didn’t know or have a connection to and decided to make their lives hell.”
Victims said that, in many instances, they blocked Freeman on social media and their phones — some even changed their numbers — but he still managed to find a way to harass them. Gradually, victims became aware of their common plight, prompting them to establish a chat group and compile a voluminous dossier named the “Stalking Evidence Folder” to document hundreds of phone calls, text messages and videos from Freeman.
Lawsuit against airline employer
Together they filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Connecticut in May against American Airlines and its regional carrier, Envoy Air, contending Freeman’s employment as a customer service representative and fleet service clerk enabled him to access their confidential passenger information.
The suit alleges American Airlines failed to properly supervise Freeman, who also is named as a defendant. The plaintiffs, who say they all flew on American Airlines at one time or another, are seeking unspecified damages.
American Airlines officials declined to comment on the suit.
Freeman’s alleged victims describe him as insidious, with an uncanny ability to know where they are, what they are doing, and, in at least one case, what they are wearing.
They also say he’s elusive and that his exact whereabouts are unknown. Public records show addresses for Freeman in Lutz, Florida, a suburb of Tampa, and at a U.S. Postal Service facility near Los Angeles International Airport. It is from that L.A. address that he filed incorporated papers last year with the California secretary of state forming a group to “expose corrupt government officials.”
Freeman did not respond to emails, and several phone numbers listed for him were disconnected.
Particularly vexing is Freeman’s motive for the alleged stalking. He didn’t demand a ransom from victims to stop the harassment; rather, he awkwardly seemed to be seeking friends, and reacted badly if he was shunned.
“His sole purpose is to make your life miserable, day in and day out,” Roark said of the barrage of texts and rambling, insulting phone calls in which he referred to some victims as “domestic terrorists.” “I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.”
Freeman also seemingly wanted to impress the plaintiffs with his access to commercial aircraft and sent them videos of himself inside the cabin of a jet, where he could be seen rummaging around the galley and pulling the lever on the device that arms the emergency evacuation slide.
Several plaintiffs said they have spoken with the FBI about the stalking. However, Laura Eimiller, spokesperson for the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said there is no indication Freeman has been arrested or charged.
Adam D.H. Grant, a Sherman Oaks attorney who specializes in mobile app law and online and digital privacy, said he would expect the FBI to investigate the matter.
“Depending on the law enforcement agency, many do not have the financial resources or personnel with capabilities to handle these types of matters,” he said. “However, since this matter involved an airline company, the federal government does have the resources and abilities.”
The only apparent attempts to hold Freeman accountable stemmed from individual cases in Florida, where he was arrested for stalking his former boss, and in Washington state, where he was arrested for telephone harassment of someone who snubbed him on social media.
In both cases, however, prosecutors didn’t pursue any charges.
Cross-country harassment
In Freeman’s first known episode of alleged telephone harassment, he targeted Nicholas Wolfe in November 2019. According to a probable-cause affidavit filed the following April by Washougal, Washington, police Officer Trevor Claudson, Wolfe said he had never met Freeman, describing him as a friend of a friend.
After Wolfe refused a social media request to friend Freeman, Claudson said, he received hundreds and possibly thousands of phone calls, texts and social media messages from Freeman. Some were vulgar, such as a text message describing Wolfe as “ugly racist white trash,” and others threatened retaliation.
Claudson’s affidavit also said that, based on prior police contacts with Freeman, he had some form of autism.
“Nicholas told me he receives so many calls from Joseph that he is sometimes unable to block the number because of how frequently the numbers keep calling him,” the officer said. On one day, he said, Freeman phoned more than 150 times.
Claudson spoke by phone with Freeman, who denied knowing or contacting Wolfe.
“As I was trying to explain to Joseph that I thought he was coming up with excuses not to speak about the telephone harassment, he hung up on me,” Claudson said in the affidavit.
Freeman was issued a citation for telephone harassment. However, it was dismissed on Sept. 9, 2021, after Freeman complied with a stipulated agreement requiring him to refrain from violating state or federal laws.
Found inside jet cockpit
A little more than a month later, Freeman allegedly embarked on another stalking campaign after he was fired from his aircraft cleaner job for Piedmont Airlines at the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport in Florida, according to court documents.
Freeman had been found by a supervisor inside the cockpit of a commercial plane and had accessed the cargo area of another aircraft without authorization, Sarasota-Manatee Airport Authority police Capt. Peter Vilardi said in a probable-cause affidavit.
“While authorized to be onboard the aircraft, his presence in the cockpit and reason he provided for being there, caused alarm to his supervisor,” the affidavit states.
Retaliates for termination
After he was terminated, Freeman, in the early morning hours of Oct. 11, 2021 — when no flights were scheduled for departure — allegedly attempted several times, without authorization, to enter Sarasota-Bradenton International’s passenger boarding and deplaning area.
Freeman also began sending “irrational and confrontational” texts and emails to a female manager, other employees and the chief executive officer of American Airlines, which owns Piedmont, according to the affidavit.
On Oct.12, 2021, Freeman also allegedly called the manager, who by then was too frightened to drive to and from the airport, saying, “You stupid b****. I have your address and I know where you live.”
Freeman was arrested on Oct. 18, 2021, for misdemeanor stalking. However, Assistant State Attorney Shawn Briggs declined to prosecute him, stating in a memo to the court there was insufficient evidence to prove the offense beyond a reasonable doubt.
“The defendant’s contact was after his employment was terminated, and he has not made contact since this incident,” the memo states.
With the Florida charges in the wind, Freeman parachuted into the lives of those now suing him.
Alleged stalker unmasked
Cody Roberts, a 26-year-old videographer from Tampa, Florida, who is among the plaintiffs, became a victim in early 2022 after Freeman messaged him on Instagram seeking photography tips.
“At first he was nice and respectful,” Roberts said in a phone interview. Freeman tried to keep his identity secret but was unmasked after months of online conversations. Roberts said he pieced together clues and found Freeman’s LinkedIn page, which has since been deleted.
Freeman worked as an American Airlines fleet service clerk and customer service representative in California, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Tampa from 2020 to 2022, according to a copy of the redacted LinkedIn page provided by Roberts, who added that he confirmed Freeman’s employment with American Airlines through a company employee.
LinkedIn also claims Freeman worked in 2019 and 2020 for G2 Secure Staff as a skycap in Tampa and an aircraft cabin service worker in Portland, Oregon, responsible for mandated Transportation Security Administration search and cleaning duties.
Freeman’s purported work history could not be independently verified. G2 Secure Staff officials did not respond to emails and phone calls seeking comment.
Freeman’s LinkedIn page also claims he received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from UC San Diego in June 2024 and attended the University of South Florida from 2019 to 2022. USF officials said there is no record of Freeman ever attending the school, while UC San Diego did not provide information on whether he had enrolled or graduated.
Before their relationship soured, Freeman used his American Airlines “buddy pass” benefit to book Roberts a free flight on Aug. 27, 2022, from Tampa to LaGuardia Airport for a New York business meeting. Roberts had used other friends’ buddy passes and didn’t think much of providing Freeman his contact information. However, he missed the flight.
“I am glad I did because he could have been waiting for me at the airport,” Roberts said.
Freeman’s online conversations with Roberts became increasingly erratic and bizarre.
He demanded to know if Roberts’ girlfriend had breast implants and asked him to provide the phone numbers of friends and take photos of their feet, according to texts obtained by the Southern California News Group.
Roberts repeatedly tried to block Freeman, who used phony names to create new social media accounts to send more threatening messages. In them, he said he hoped Roberts, his family and his girlfriend would “die in an airplane disaster or get Covid and suffocate to death.”
Freeman also allegedly spoofed the phone number of Roberts’ mother to make it seem as if she was calling. The spoofing ploy was so common among many plaintiffs that they would have family members text them in advance if they planned to call.
Roberts, who feared for his safety, filed a complaint with American Airlines warning that Freeman had vowed to breach the company’s passenger databases to acquire confidential passenger contact information.
“He has also made statements that he will abuse the American Airlines system and search for one of my friends in the system in order to obtain his phone number,” Roberts said in an email to the airline.
Victim feared for her life
Brooklyn Maes of San Diego said Freeman first targeted her in January 2023 after she missed a Volaris Airlines flight from Tijuana to Cancun, Mexico. She booked another flight on Viva Aerobus, and, minutes after touching down, received a phone call from an unknown number.
A man on the line asked Maes why she missed the Volaris flight, accurately provided her seat number and described the black clothing she was wearing.
Maes didn’t recognize Freeman’s voice at first but freaked out after realizing she was likely talking to the same person who had stalked a cousin of her boyfriend who lives in Anaheim. “I panicked,” she said. “It was the same damn guy. I didn’t want to be a victim.”
Maes said Freeman learned her father is a San Diego County sheriff’s deputy, and began flooding her Instagram account with vitriolic anti-police posts.
“You are a horrible domestic terrorist, your Dad is the reason why there are police PR crises going on in this country after the murder of George Floyd,” one post says. “I am pretty sure he’s a gang member of the think (thin) blue line, you princess racist b****. I blame people like u why racism is still a thing in 2023.”
Maes said that on April 5, 2023, she recorded a phone call from Freeman, who for more than six minutes unleashed a string of profanities and wild allegations about her character and that of her father.
Freeman also sent a video to some of the plaintiffs in which he approaches Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies at the 7th Street/Metro Center station and questions them about their involvement in deputy gangs.
At the height of the harassment that lasted for more than a year, Maes was traveling around the country living alone in her van. “There were some nights I thought he was going to kill me,” she said. “He would text me and call me a f****** b****.”
Maes said Freeman also seemed to know her schedule at the bar where she works, leading her to believe he was stalking her through the business’ security cameras.
“He is the Albert Einstein of hacking,” she said. “This guy doesn’t sleep. There is no way to stop him.”
Endearing but disturbing
Perhaps the best insights into Freeman came from a 25-year-old San Diego man who is not a plaintiff in the American Airlines lawsuit.
Raphael Lisbona said he befriended Freeman in 2022, when Freeman went by Jaquan. Like others, he was contacted via Instagram, but then Freeman got his phone number and called him sometimes hundreds of times a day that year. At first, Lisbona said, the calls were innocuous and somewhat entertaining. He recalled a six-hour phone conversation with Freeman while driving to the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, nestled along the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada range.
Freeman peppered Lisbona with questions, asking what it was like to be with a woman and what it was like to have sex. “I felt bad for him,” Lisbona said. “All he knows about the world is what he sees on his phone screen.”
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Lisbona met Freeman in person first at Westfield UTC Mall in San Diego and later at an In-and-Out in Los Angeles. Freeman, wearing a protective mask over a face mask at the mall because he feared COVID-19, sauntered off to Panda Express for orange chicken, while Lisbona and a friend purchased salads at Tender Greens.
Lisbona, known by the nickname Raff, said Freeman had little to say and seemed like a “lost soul” during lunch. When it was time to leave an hour later, Freeman became angry in the mall’s parking lot and hurled the remainder of an Oreo shake to the ground.
Later, as he had done to other victims, he began bombarding Lisbona’s cellphone with insulting calls and texts, including one that described him as a “fake evil person” whom he wished would die in a plane crash.
Two hours later, in another text, Freeman begged Lisbona to be his friend. “Riff Raff I’m sorry can you please forgive me ???” Freeman wrote. “I have known (sic) else please I apologize. I’ll pay u. How much!!!”
