Ex-cop charged with stealing $450,000 from woman he’d arrested

Photo: Alameda Co. Sheriff Ex-Hayward police Sgt. Michael Scott Beal

A former Hayward police sergeant victimized a mentally ill woman he once arrested for prostitution, stealing more than $450,000 from her while falsely promising that he would marry her and that they were jointly investing in a home purchase, authorities said Tuesday.

Michael Scott Beal, a 55-year-old Modesto resident, was arrested Monday and charged by Alameda County prosecutors with nine felony counts of grand theft. He is being held in lieu of $420,000 bail at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin. Beal, a divorced father of two children, retired in 2013 after 27 years with the Hayward force.

“At that time, we were not aware of any illegal activity that he may have been involved in while employed at Hayward PD,” Sgt. Ryan Cantrell said Tuesday.

Beal met the alleged victim, Nancy Joe, in 2002 when he arrested her for prostitution during an undercover sting, investigators said. Over the next several years, he cultivated a relationship with Joe, who told investigators that she provided sexual favors to Beal while he was on duty, prosecutors said in court records.

Joe gave Beal, who filed for bankruptcy in 1999, increasing amounts of money as Beal’s financial situation worsened, authorities said. Beal took advantage of Joe, knowing that she suffered from mental illness, district attorney’s Inspector Jeff Israel wrote in a court affidavit.

In 2007, a year after his wife sued him for divorce, Beal persuaded Joe to invest in a home in Alameda County by paying half the mortgage and half the property taxes, telling her that when he retired, they would get married, sell the property and split the proceeds, authorities said.

Joe gave Beal more than $450,000 from 2008 to 2015, but Beal never bought a home, authorities said. The alleged scam was uncovered in February, when Joe called Hayward police, learned that Beal had retired two years earlier and asked for help getting him to stop asking her for money, authorities said.

In April, during a meeting outside a fast-food restaurant that was secretly recorded by investigators, Beal asked Joe for more money but refused to provide any paperwork regarding the investment property, Israel wrote. Beal also denied that he was retired and accused Joe of wearing a wire, authorities said.

“The bottom line is, Nancy, I still don’t have what I need and I gotta get that,” Beal allegedly told Joe. “Today. You know that.”

Henry K. Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: hlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @henryklee