California Cops Text Nude Photos Stolen from Smartphones of Women in Custody

A California Highway Patrol officer and fellow police for years swapped images from smartphones belonging to arrested women, along with crude digital commentary. At least one female injured in a car accident also had her phone ransacked and ogled.

In an affidavit, senior Contra Costa district attorney inspector Darryl Holcombe wrote that CHP officers Sean Harrington, Robert Hazelwood and others engaged in a "scheme to unlawfully access the cell phone of female arrestees by intentionally gaining access to their cell phone and without their knowledge, stealing and retaining nude or partially clothed photographs of them." That equates to felony computer theft, the affidavit said.

The investigation began with a single incident: The Aug. 29 DUI arrest of a 23-year-old woman. She reported that photos had been stolen from her phone, after seeing on her iPad that the photos had been sent to an unknown number. A record of the messages had been deleted from her iPhone, but the phone had been synced to the iPad.

The attorney compared video surveillance and time-stamped text messages from the woman's phone to determine that Harrington held the woman's phone at the moment the photos were forwarded. The woman -- who registered a blood-alcohol level of 0.29 percent, more than three times the legal limit -- was being processed in a Martinez County Jail when the photos were stolen.

Harrington told investigators he had done the same thing to female arrestees half a dozen times during the past several years. The Contra Costa Times has published excerpts of text messages between officers discussing the explicit suspect photos.

“The conduct of the officers -- none of whom has been charged so far -- could compromise any criminal cases in which they are witnesses,” the Contra Costa Times reports.

The woman's DUI case has already been dismissed because of the investigation.

Holcombe wrote in the affidavit that the arrangement involved officers agreeing to locate photos and “then text the photographs to other sworn members of the office, and, to non-CHP individuals. Harrington described this scheme as a game."

The court documents describe a second incident involving a 19-year-old woman who was in a DUI crash on Aug. 7. Harrington’s phone contained two photos of that DUI suspect in a bikini accompanied by a text message from the day of the arrest from Harrington to Hazelwood: "Taken from the phone of my 10-15x while she's in X-rays. Enjoy buddy!!!"

A "10-15x" is CHP code for a woman in custody. The woman may have been at a hospital to have X-rays taken after the crash.

A little later, the affidavit says, Harrington sent another CHP officer, Dion Simmons, the bikini photos with the same message. Simmons texted back "Nice" and "Hahahaaaa" and Harrington replies: "Just rerun a favor down the road buddy. :)"

At a Saturday night news conference to discuss the growing controversy, Avery Browne, CHP’s Golden Gate Division chief, said that two officers have been pulled from patrol duties, and one of them has been barred from coming to work.

Simmons, the third officer, is considered a witness and has not been pulled from his normal duties.

"When I read the accounts ... the callousness and depravity with which these officers commented about women is dehumanizing, horribly offensive and degrading to all women," Browne said. "This behavior gravely undermines the public's trust in our ability to perform our duties and creates unnecessary mistrust and skepticism to ... law enforcement.”