Two Missouri law enforcement officers thought they were slick, but they both got busted recently.
Reportedly, these two police officers would pull people over for traffic violations and then search their phones for nude pictures.
The two officers were indicted this week and accused of very similar crimes.
David McKnight, 39, is a former Missouri State Highway Patrol officer, and Julian Alcala, 29, is a former police officer with Florissant, Missouri. David was indicted on Tuesday, and Julian was indicted on Wednesday. Their cases were not related, but ironically, the allegations were very similar.
Both men now face federal charges, accusing them of depriving the rights of several women and then destroying evidence.
Reportedly, David victimized nine women between September of last year and August 19 of this year. It was said he would pull a woman over for a traffic violation and tell her he needed to look at her phone either to verify her identity or to confirm her insurance coverage. He would then search the woman’s phone and use his own phone to capture pictures of any nude photographs he found.
David was arrested by patrol investigators on August 21 and resigned five days later. He pleaded not guilty during a court appearance on Thursday and that a judge set a bond of $10,000.
As for Julian, he was accused of crimes involving 20 women between February 6 and May 19, with five of those crimes said to have happened on the same day. He reportedly took the phones away from the women, claiming he was confirming insurance coverage and vehicle registration. Like David, he was accused of looking through their phones for nude pictures and snapping photos with his own phone.
He also allegedly found a sex video on one woman’s phone, texted it to himself, and then deleted the evidence.
Julian had reportedly been with his police department since January of last year and resigned in June during the FBI investigation.
The Florissant Police Department said in a statement Wednesday that it was completely unaware of the allegations. They stated that Alcala had passed a “meticulous and thorough background investigation” during the hiring process and that the department had not received a single complaint about him in the 11 months of his employment.
“We are disgusted at this behavior, which is a complete betrayal of the values we uphold and in no way reflects the professionalism and integrity of our dedicated officers,” the department said. “We recognize the gravity of this breach of trust and its impact on our community.”
Both men thought they could get away with this just because they were law enforcement officers. However, they were wrong and have now been exposed.
