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Sean Harrington, a California Highway Patrol officer, is accused of having surreptitiously downloaded and forwarded nude photos from the phone of a woman he pulled over for a DUI stop.
Prosecutors in Contra Costa County are seeking felony computer theft charges against Officer Sean Harrington, who investigators said stole the photos during an Aug. 29 traffic stop.
The 35-year-old Harrington and his partner stopped the woman, whose name was not released, on Interstate 680 in San Ramon for an unsafe lane change, reported the Contra Costa Times.
Officers said the woman failed field sobriety tests, and she was taken into custody after her blood-alcohol level was determined to be 0.29 percent – more than three times the legal limit.
The woman told investigators that Harrington asked for the password to her cell phone, which she provided.
Investigators said Harrington found photos of the woman in a bikini or partially nude and then forwarded six of them to his own cell phone about 2:08 a.m.
The woman’s iPhone was synced with her iPad using the iCloud service, investigators said, which revealed the photos had been sent to a number with an 707 area code at the time she was in police custody.
She researched the number and found it belonged to the officer who arrested her, prosecutors said.
Police executed a search warrant last week at Harrington’s home, where they said they found photographs, text messages, and instant messages from the woman’s phone on the officer’s electronic devices.
The woman’s drunken driving case was dismissed due to the investigation into the photo theft.
Agencies/Canadajournal
