A New Jersey state trooper was indicted Thursday on charges he allegedly pulled over women on traffic stops to ask them out on dates, The Trentonian reported.
Eric Richardson, 32, of Camden, faces charges including official misconduct, criminal coercion and tampering with records, the state attorney’s office announced.
According to the six-count state grand jury indictment, Richardson allegedly conducted improper stops of two female drivers in November and December 2016, then falsified records to hide his actions.
“Police are given great authority and are rightly held to the highest standards of integrity,” Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said in a written statement. “When officers abuse their authority, as alleged in this case, they must be held accountable. Public trust and public safety demand it.”
The probe was initiated by the New Jersey State Police Office of Professional Standards, which uncovered incidents involving two women Richardson allegedly pulled over several times and harassed about initiating an intimate relationship, the Trentonian reported. He deactivated his dashboard camera during some of the stops, prosecutors said.
On May 8, 2017, Richardson illegally accessed the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services database for a male friend to do a driver inquiry on a woman the friend employed, prosecutors said. Richardson allegedly photographed her driver history and texted it to his friend, the Trentonian reported.
Richardson has been suspended by the New Jersey State Police since May 31, 2017, the newspaper reported.
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