Traffic Cops Who Snooped Sexy Selfies Face Federal Charges

David McKnight and Julian Alcala were accused of separate plots to steal sexually explicit photos from women's phones during traffic stops.

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 Women 

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 Forward 

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 to the FBI after this, Pleban told KSDK.

Some of the women whose images Alcala allegedly took pictures of weren't aware anything was up until they were contacted by the FBI. This was the case for a woman going by G.E.S., who is suing Alcala and the city of Florissant in federal court. The suit also accuses him of sharing her pics with others.

"The right to privacy is embodied in the Fourteenth Amendment and includes an individual's interest in avoiding disclosures of personal matters," states the lawsuit, filed in October. "The right to be free of an unreasonable search of unclothed photos on a cell phone by government actors, for no legitimate government purpose…is so egregious that any reasonable officer would have realized that searching Plaintiff's phone for photos of herself unclothed would offend the Constitution," it states.

McKnight Accused of Snooping on Nine Women 

McKnight was also indicted by a grand jury in November. He faces one count of destroying records in a federal investigation and nine counts of deprivation of rights under color of law.

"Between Sept. 1, 2023, and August 19, 2024, McKnight took cell phones from nine different women," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Missouri. "McKnight then searched the phones and used his personal cell phone to photograph nude pictures that he found," later deleting these images from his phone.

Prosecutors allege that most of the phones were taken from women McKnight stopped for traffic violations and that he took possession of their phones under the guise of verifying their identities or confirming that they had insurance coverage.

Over at Techdirt, Tim Cushing points out that these cases aren't the first we've heard of such behavior. "In July 2024, a female police officer was awarded a $1 million settlement after her fellow officers shared sexual content found on her phone during an internal fraud investigation," notes Cushing. "In October 2022, a police officer was indicted for using law enforcement database access to seek female targets to hack to obtain sexually explicit photos and videos. In October 2014, a bunch of California Highway Patrol officers were caught sharing explicit photos harvested from the phones of female arrestees."

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