Officer sued for purportedly taking naked pictures during a traffic stop

ST. LOUIS COUNTIES: A Missouri couple claims that a city police officer stole their nude pictures during a traffic stop earlier this year, and they are suing the city of Florissant and the officer. Last Monday, St. Louis-based attorney Richard Voytas Jr. of Voytas Law filed the lawsuit on behalf of his clients.

Because of the nature of the case and worries about retaliation, the couple has only been identified as “Jane Doe” and “John Doe,” and the officer has only been described as “Joe Smith” because his identity has not been made public.

Evidence of insurance

According to the lawsuit, the officer pulled Jane Doe over in February 2024 on the grounds that her backlight was out. According to the documents, he inquired about her insurance before telling her to unlock her phone and access the evidence of insurance. According to reports, the officer returned Jane’s phone to his patrol car and unplugged it from the Bluetooth in her car.

The lawsuit claims that before giving the woman her phone back, the officer stayed in his cruiser for at least ten minutes. Without giving Jane a ticket, he drove off. According to the lawsuit, Jane Doe was called by FBI investigators in July and asked to identify a picture of herself that she recognized in a naked form.

Although Jane claimed to have only ever shared the picture with her spouse, federal agents informed her that the Florissant police officer who had stopped her over had indeed located the picture and others. Following the traffic stop, Officer Smith is suspected of having accessed Jane Doe’s private messages after seeing a pinned chat between the two.

Safety is the first priority

According to the lawsuit, the officer looked through years of the couple’s correspondence and discovered private messages and nude photos the two had exchanged. The lawsuit claims that the FBI learned about the officer’s actions because he took pictures of the couple’s private images with his phone and shared them with others.

Voytas and his clients think that the cop has victimized other people in Florissant with the same crime. The lawsuit against the officer was acknowledged in a message that the Florissant Police Department placed on its Facebook page on Wednesday afternoon. “We want to reassure the community that we take any claims of police misconduct very seriously. We are deeply disturbed by these reports.

Part of the letter says, “The safety of every member of our community continues to be our first priority. “We expect every member of our community to be treated with dignity and respect, and we hold our employees to a high standard of integrity.”

The accused officer has left the city, according to the Florissant Police Department, and “there is no indication that any other member of the Florissant Police Department was involved in the alleged misconduct,” the department continued. According to Voytas, the couple that brought the claim is hoping for a jury trial.