Cop stole nude photos from woman’s phone during Missouri traffic stop, FBI tells her
It seemed like a routine traffic stop for a Missouri woman caught in February with the taillight out on her car.
The officer asked for insurance information, so she unlocked her phone to show it to the Florissant police officer, court documents say.
The officer grabbed her phone, without her permission, and took it back to his vehicle, disconnecting it from the Bluetooth associated with the woman’s car, court documents say.
Hoping the officer was “just running her plates or performing other official police business,” she waited 10 minutes for him to return with her phone, according to court documents.
The officer eventually brought the phone back and did not issue her a ticket.
Months later, in July, the woman was contacted by the FBI. Officials shared information with her that led the woman and her husband to file a lawsuit Sept. 6 against the officer that pulled her over and the City of Florissant.
McClatchy News reached out to the city and police department on Sept. 11 but did not immediately hear back.
Agents showed the woman a photograph — “blown up large and printed out” — of her “fully nude” that she had sent to her husband through text message, according to the lawsuit.
The FBI told the woman that the photo was found on a Florissant police officer’s device, the lawsuit said. Authorities discovered this after the photo had been shared with other people, according to court documents.
“Worse, to get this photograph, (the officer) would have seen multiple other nude photos of (the couple),” the civil complaint said. It added that the officer would have had to scroll back years in text messages to find the photos.
The local officer took a photo of the explicit photograph using his own device without the woman’s consent, violating the couple’s privacy, according to the lawsuit.
The couple is asking for $25,000 in damages.
Florissant is about a 17-mile drive northwest from St. Louis.
This story was originally published September 11, 2024 at 5:55 PM with the headline "Cop stole nude photos from woman’s phone during Missouri traffic stop, FBI tells her."
