Traffic Cops Who Snooped Sexy Selfies Face Federal Charges
Federal charges have been filed against two former Missouri police officers accused of separate plots to steal nude photos from women’s phones during traffic stops.
Former Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper David McKnight and former Florissant, Missouri police officer Julian Alcala were separately indicted this month on charges of destroying records in a federal investigation and deprivation of rights under color of law.
Surely, our founding fathers never envisioned a world in which many people carried around tiny devices loaded with images of themselves in a state of nudity. But the constitutional right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure adapts to the times. And without a doubt, a police officer surreptitiously searching someone’s photos during a traffic stop and then seizing them for himself is quite unreasonable.
Alcala Accused of Stealing Nudes From 20 WomenÂ
Alcala is accused of illegally searching 20 women’s phones in search of nudes in a period of just over three months. “Between Feb. 6, 2024, and May 18, 2024. Alcala took possession of their cell phones under the auspices of confirming their insurance coverage or vehicle registration, searched the phones for nude pictures and then took photos of the pictures with his personal cell phone,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri alleges.
The photos he took were later found in his personal iCloud account, prosecutors say.
Alcala is also accused of texting himself a video from one woman’s phone, then trying to delete a record of this text.
On November 13, a grand jury indicted Alcala on one count of destroying records in a federal investigation and 20 counts of deprivation of rights under color of law.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. But if nude images taken from these women were really found in his iCloud, it will be interesting to hear how he justifies this. (“I swear, your honor, nothing turns women on like being told their taillight is out?”)
Victims Come ForwardÂ
J.C. Pleban, a lawyer for some of Alcala’s alleged victims, talked to KSDK St. Louis. One of the women he’s representing is Victim #1 in the federal indictment, which says Alcala sent himself a video from the woman’s phone and deleted the text from her phone afterward.
But the woman could still see the text in her deleted messages, said her lawyer.
“I think she just had a feeling that something was off,” Pleban told KSDK. “Something wasn’t right. This was taking way too long and when she checked her phone, she saw that [a video of her and her boyfriend] had been sent from her number to a number she didn’t know at the exact time that she was pulled over,” Pleban said.
The woman reached out t
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