Two Missouri law enforcement officers have been charged in separate federal cases this week with illegally searching the cellphones of women they encountered during traffic stops to steal their nude or sexually explicit photos, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri said on Thursday.
Former Florissant police officer Julian Alcala, 29, was indicted by a grand jury and accused of illegally searching the cellphones of 20 women between February and May. He allegedly took their phones under the pretext of checking their insurance coverage or vehicle registration, searched the phones for nude pictures, and photographed the pictures with his phone, the indictment said, adding that he found an explicit video in one victim’s phone and texted it to his own cellphone, before attempting to delete evidence of the text.
A separate indictment accused former Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper David McKnight, 39, of similarly unlawfully searching nine women’s cellphones during traffic stops for nude photos and taking pictures of them with his personal cellphone. He later deleted the images from his cellphone, it says.
Alcala and McKnight were indicted with counts of deprivation of rights under color of law - meaning the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. They both also face a charge of destroying records in a federal investigation - Alcala for allegedly deleting the text message evidence of the video he sent to himself from one woman’s phone, and McKnight for allegedly deleting the illegally obtained images from his phone.
Several of Alcala’s alleged victims have filed a lawsuit against him and the city of Florissant, accusing him of also sharing the photos with others and arguing that, based on the number of victims, they could infer “there was a continuing, widespread, persistent pattern of unconstitutional misconduct” by Florissant Police Department employees.
The Florissant Police Department said in a statement posted on Facebook that “no other members of the Florissant Police Department were involved in this matter” and that the department first learned of the allegations against Alcala when it was contacted by the FBI in June. Alcala, who had been with the department for 11 months, “immediately resigned” while the department cooperated with the federal investigation, it said.
“We want to assure our residents that we had no knowledge of any illegal activity or improper behavior by Alcala during his time with our department,” the police department said. “We are disgusted at this behavior, which is a complete betrayal of the values we uphold and in no way reflects the professionalism and integrity of our dedicated officers.”
The Missouri State Highway Patrol said in an emailed statement to The Washington Post that it launched a criminal investigation into McKnight in August and the department’s investigators arrested him on Aug. 21. McKnight, who joined the highway patrol in 2021, resigned Aug. 26. The Missouri Department of Public Safety said in an emailed statement to The Post that McKnight has since surrendered his state peace officer license, meaning “he can never work as a Missouri law enforcement officer again.”
Alcala does not have an attorney listed, and efforts to reach him for comment during the overnight hours were unsuccessful. A lawyer representing McKnight did not immediately respond to requests for comment overnight.
Police generally need a warrant before they can seize a phone and search its contents, even after an arrest. And even when there is a search warrant, courts have been divided about whether someone can be legally forced to unlock it. However, the practicalities can also be complicated, with experts noting that a traffic stop could be longer and more confrontational if you refuse an officer’s request to look at your phone, The Post previously reported.
“If you feel uncomfortable about your encounter with law enforcement, please don’t hesitate to go to that department after the fact to report what happened,” Special Agent in Charge Ashley T. Johnson of the FBI St. Louis Division said in Thursday’s statement from the district attorney’s office. “If you feel your civil rights have been violated, contact the FBI.”
In 2021, a Minnesota state trooper was charged and found guilty of nonconsensual dissemination of private sexual images, after he sent himself three explicit photos from the phone of a woman he detained on suspicion of drunken driving.