Brickbat: Pick Up the Phone
Jody Baer, a former police officer in Odessa, Texas, faces two felony counts of misuse of official information. Investigators say he used phone numbers obtained through his job to send personal and sexually inappropriate text messages to two women he had arrested. According to an affidavit, Baer first contacted one woman on August 5, and his messages soon became sexual in nature. He allegedly contacted another woman starting on August 22, calling her "beautiful" and "sexy"; investigators also say he drove his marked patrol vehicle past her home several times and asked by text if she was there. Both women told investigators they had given Baer their phone numbers, which were not publicly available, because he was a police officer. Baer acknowledged obtaining their numbers during their arrests and contacting them afterward, explaining that he was lonely. Investigators say he also admitted that some of the messages were inappropriate, including sending a sexual message and photograph to one of the women. Baer resigned the morning of his arrest.