While taking to the FBI, the woman learned that the Florissant officer had most likely searched her gallery during the February 2024 traffic stop, stole her pictures, and then forwarded them to multiple people.
A Missouri couple have filed a lawsuit against the Florissant Police Department, claiming that an officer accessed and retrieved intimate pictures from a woman’s phone during a routine traffic stop.
According to The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Florissant officer conducting the stop asked the woman to unlock her phone. On the pretext of verifying her insurance details, he took the phone to his vehicle and kept it for about 10 minutes. Afterward, the officer returned the woman’s phone and released the couple without issuing a citation.
Several months later, the woman was contacted by FBI agents. They told her that they had phone a nude photograph of her—one that she claims to have only shared with her husband.
While taking to the FBI, the woman learned that the Florissant officer had most likely searched her gallery during the February 2024 traffic stop, stole her pictures, and then forwarded them to multiple people.
Attorneys for the two plaintiffs, identified only by the pseudonyms “John Doe” and “Jane Doe,” say there is good reason to believe that there are more victims, more photographs, and more officers involved than Florissant has so far admitted.
“[Jane Doe] is eager to begin the discovery process to learn more about what happened to her that day in February,” attorney Rick Voytas said. “We filed this suit in hopes that it would encourage other victims to step forward.”
Although the lawsuit does not name the officer, it does recount the events leading up to the FBI’s phone call.
Doe, writes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, was pulled over in February. The responding officer told her that her taillight was out and asked whether she had a picture of her insurance card on her phone. He then “abruptly” took Doe’s phone back to his police vehicle, where he remained for at least 10 minutes.
The officer eventually returned Doe’s phone, and left the scene without issuing aticket.
But the FBI said that the officer appears to have methodically scrolled through Doe’s text messages and photo gallery. He found intimate pictures in a message thread between Doe and her husband, and used his own smartphone to capture images of Doe’s screen.
The officer, attorneys say, “scrolled years back into Jane’s messages, voyeuristically viewing naked photographs of both her and her husband and their intimate messages.
“The conduct of [the officer] as described above was outrageous—conduct so outrageous in character, and so extreme in degree, as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency, and to be regarded as atrocious, and utterly intolerable in a civilized community,” the lawsuit alleges.
Doe, and her husband, are seeking at least $25,000 in damages.
Sources
Florissant cop stole nude photos during traffic stop: Lawsuit
Woman says cop stole nude photos during Florissant traffic stop, more victims possible
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