Britt Jones
Two Missouri police officers have been arrested separately after being accused of pulling women over and searching their phones for nude images.
The indictments of the two officers follow after they committed similar offenses on their female victims in the area.
Those who stand accused are former Missouri State Highway Patrol officer David McKnight, who was indicted on Tuesday November 5 and former Florissant, Missouri, officer Julian Alcala on Wednesday November 6 in unrelated cases.
Both men are facing federal charges, which accuse them of depriving the women of their human rights and also destroying evidence.
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For McKnight, he is alleged to have committed the offenses against nine women spanning from September 2023 to August 19, 2024, which found that he would pull over the women on the basis that they had committed a traffic violation.
He would then allegedly claim that need needed to look at their phones to verify their insurance coverage or identity.
When he had their cell phones in his possession, it has been said that he would search for nude images and take pictures of them with his own device.
The 39-year-old was arrested by patrol investigators on August 21, and he resigned five days later, according to patrol Capt. Scott White as per AP.
The outlet claimed White shared patrol employees ‘are held to high standards and if it is determined that those standards were not met, they are held accountable.’
The former officer was ‘indicted by a grand jury in U.S. District Court in Cape Girardeau with one count of destroying records in a federal investigation as well as nine counts of deprivation of rights under color of law’, according to the United State’s Attorney’s Office Eastern District of Missouri.
The specific rights violation was the ‘right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure’.
However, McKnight pleaded not guilty.
Alcala was then accused of victimizing 20 women between February 6 and May 18 this year, which five of the women claiming that their cases happened on the same day as each other.
Like McKnight, Alcala is said to have taken their phones under the guise of checking their details and would then use his own phone to take pictures of nudes he found.
The indictment further claimed that Alcala also found a video on one victim’s phone, leading to him texting the video to his mobile.
Other information about Alcala revealed that he is also listed in four more lawsuits filed against him and the city of Florissant.
He has since resigned from his post when the FBI became involved in a case involving him in June.
Florissant police said in a statement: “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. We recognize the gravity of this breach of trust and its impact on our community."
“These allegations are being taken very seriously, and we’d like to encourage anyone who believes they had a concerning interaction with McKnight to contact the FBI,” said U.S. Attorney Sayler A. Fleming regarding McKnight.
UNILAD reached out to both the Missouri State Highway Patrol Department and the Florissant Police Department for comment.