Once you get pulled over by a police officer, the chances of something good happening are slimmer than a Slim Jim.
Credit: George Mathis
Credit: George Mathis
In the vast majority of cases, people leave the scene with only a ticket.
Some get away with a warning, though I've been told police officers in some jurisdictions cannot let people off the hook anymore. (Note: Gwinnett police contacted me to say they do issue warnings.)
Some unlucky female drivers have run afoul of police officers who have something other than public safety on their mind.
I've written about a police officer who cruised the streets looking for teens to pimp .
Today I read about a state trooper in Ohio who forced female motorists to perform sex acts in exchange for dropping traffic charges. An investigation proved the officer -- Bryan Lee -- also offered sex on Craigslist to motorists (females only I presume) interested in "traffic stop sex."
Lee was 30 in October when he pleaded guilty in federal court to four counts of unreasonable search and seizure and one count of cyber stalking. He was sentenced Tuesday to five years in federal prison. The eight-year member of the Ohio State Highway Patrol quit before he got fired.
Another way to avoid a ticket when Lee pulled you over was to be a cop. When he was 25 , Lee pulled over two motorcyclists clocked at about 150 miles per hour. Once he found out one was a fellow trooper and the other was a local police officer, he began joking with them and turned off his microphone. He let the off-duty officers go without a ticket. Lee kept his job because the police union intervened.
"He's going to stay right where he is and keep doing his job and doing it well," said Herschel Sigall, union attorney for the Ohio State Troopers Association at the time.
The most recent investigation indicates Lee ruined one date when he pulled a driver over (a boyfriend?) and, after determining the driver was not drunk and letting them drive away, kept the female passenger in his police cruiser. He drove the woman to her house and told her he was turning off the camera in his car. He made comments about her breasts and legs and she asked what it would take to escape the situation. Lee suggested he let her take pictures of his hands on her breasts.
Lee reminded the woman he could still give her friend a traffic ticket.
Lee later sent the woman multiple Facebook messages asking for nude pictures and said he had spotted her in public and knew what she was wearing.
"That's really creepy," the woman told the FBI. "If you're a professional and you're a cop, I feel like that's way out of line."
In one incident he handcuffed a woman involved in a wreck and made her bend over the police car. He then fondled her breasts and rubbed his penis on her hands, according to the investigation. She complained about the abuse, but Lee said the woman offered him sex to get out of a ticket and the complaint was dismissed .
Lee's victims likely know judges value the word of police officers more than the word of the accused.
Another woman had her speeding ticket torn up after having sex with Lee at an abandoned gas station. "He told me to do this, he told me to do that and I basically complied. What else am I going to do in that situation, he's a cop. He has more authority," she said.
Lee was finally caught when a supervisor took a routine look at dashcam video and saw the officer flirting inappropriately with women. An investigation was launched and federal charges were filed.
Always remember: Sometimes it's better to go to jail than do what authorities tell you.
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