A Missouri couple claims that a city police officer stole their nude pictures during a traffic stop earlier this year, and they are suing the city of Florissant and the officer.
Last Monday, St. Louis-based attorney Richard Voytas Jr. of Voytas Law filed the lawsuit on behalf of his clients. Because of the nature of the case and worries about retaliation, the couple has only been identified as “Jane Doe” and “John Doe,” and the officer has only been described as “Joe Smith” because his identity has not been made public.
According to the lawsuit, the officer pulled Jane Doe over in February 2024 because her backlight was out. According to the records, he enquired about her insurance before telling her to unlock her phone and access the evidence of insurance.
According to reports, the officer returned Jane’s phone to his patrol car and unplugged it from the Bluetooth in her car. The lawsuit claims that the officer stayed in his cruiser for at least ten minutes before giving the woman her phone back. Without giving Jane a ticket, he drove off.
According to the lawsuit, FBI investigators got in touch with Jane Doe in July and asked her to identify a picture of a lady in a nude shot that she recognised as herself. Jane told investigators that she had never shared the photo with anyone other than her husband. Still, federal authorities informed her that the Florissant police officer who had pulled her over had uncovered the picture and others.
After discovering a pinned conversation between Jane Doe and John Doe, Officer Smith is accused of viewing Jane Doe’s private messages during the traffic stop. The lawsuit claims that after going back years in the couple’s conversation, the officer discovered private messages and explicit photos the two had exchanged.
The lawsuit claims that the FBI learnt about the officer’s actions because he took pictures of the couple’s private images with his phone and shared them with others.
Voytas and his clients think that the cop has victimised other people in Florissant with the same crime.
The lawsuit against the officer was acknowledged in a message that the Florissant Police Department placed on its Facebook page on Wednesday afternoon.
“We are deeply concerned by these allegations and want to assure the community that we take any claim of officer misconduct very seriously. The safety of everyone in our community remains our top priority,” the message reads in part. “We hold our employees to a high standard of integrity and expect them to treat every member of our community with dignity and respect.”
The accused officer has left the city, according to the Florissant Police Department, and “there is no indication that any other member of the Florissant Police Department was involved in the alleged misconduct,” the department continued.
According to Voytas, the couple that brought the claim is hoping for a jury trial.
