Sex Or Else: Ex-Trooper Lee Admits Forcing Women Drivers To Choose
Sex or a ticket was the choice one ex-trooper gave some women he stopped for alleged traffic violations or during arrests.
According to the Columbia Dispatch, former Ohio trooper Bryan D. Lee acted suspiciously on a cruiser video when he was observed flirting with women he pulled over and then turning off his microphone.
Lee stopped two women for suspected drunk driving, but he failed to charge them. Instead he gave them a choice: sex in exchange for freedom from drunk driving charges.
The incident occurred in September 2013, but authorities say the 30-year-old gave the sex choice to other female motorists he pulled over. Lee even had photographs of some of the sex crimes.
In one incident, Lee pulled over a woman and asked to see her topless. She complied, he took pictures, and then the two went to an abandoned gas station where they had sex. Lee tore up her ticket in exchange for her actions.
Other women engaged in sex acts with Lee while they were handcuffed.
According to New York Daily News, Lee was a trooper for eight years, but he resigned in October 2013 after the FBI stepped in to help investigate the allegations of sex crimes and other violations.
Ohio Highway Patrol Lt. Craig Cevetan said in an interview the stops Lee made threw red flags.
“The conversations that he was having, they didn’t seem to be quite as work related as they should be. The questions that he was asking didn’t really seem to pertain to the stop, so at that point we began to investigate a little bit further into the incident.”
On Wednesday, Lee pleaded guilty in federal court to four counts of unreasonable search and seizure.
The ex-trooper also pleaded guilty to one count of cyber stalking because he contacted one of his victims on Facebook. He had pulled the same woman over twice before his contact with her on Facebook and asked her why she didn’t speak to him when he saw her at a fair.
The ex-cop cried in court, but Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell was not moved by his emotions.
“Today’s guilty plea should serve as a reminder that nobody is above the law, especially those who have taken an oath to uphold it.”
Lee, a Lancaster, Ohio resident, is a father of three and married. He faces up to nine years in prison for coercing women to have sex in exchange for their freedom or tickets, including five years for stalking.
[Images via AP and imgarcade.com]
