A couple from Missouri has sued the Florissant Police Department, alleging that during a routine traffic stop, an officer looked through and took private photos from the woman’s phone.
The woman was asked to unlock her phone by the Florissant police who made the stop, as reported by The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He took the phone to his car and held it there for ten or so minutes under the guise of checking her insurance information. The officer then gave the woman’s phone back and let the couple go without writing a ticket.
Agents from the FBI approached the woman a few months later. They informed her that they had a picture of her in her underwear on their phone, which she says she had only ever shared with her spouse.
The woman was informed by the FBI that the Florissant police officer had probably looked through her gallery during the February 2024 traffic stop, taken her photos, and sent them to several recipients.
Lawyers for the two plaintiffs—known only by their pseudonyms, “John Doe” and “Jane Doe”—state that there is solid evidence to suggest that Florissant has not yet acknowledged the involvement of more victims, more photos, or more cops.
Attorney Rick Voytas stated, “[Jane Doe] is eager to begin the discovery process to learn more about what happened to her that day in February.” “Our intention in bringing this lawsuit is to inspire other victims to come forward.”
The lawsuit describes the circumstances leading up to the FBI’s phone conversation, even if it does not name the officer. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Doe was stopped in February. Her taillight was out, the attending officer informed her, and he inquired as to whether she had a photo of her insurance card on her phone. After that, he “abruptly” returned Doe’s phone to his police car, where he stayed for a minimum of ten minutes.
After giving Doe’s phone back, the officer departed the scene without giving her a ticket. However, according to the FBI, the cop seems to have gone through Doe’s picture gallery and text messages meticulously. He used his own smartphone to take screenshots of Doe’s screen after seeing private photos in a chat thread between her and her spouse.
The policeman “scrolled years back into Jane’s messages, voyeuristically viewing naked photographs of both her and her husband and their intimate messages,” according to the attorney. The lawsuit claims that the officer’s actions were “outrageous”—”conduct so outrageous in character, and so extreme in degree, as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency, and to be regarded as atrocious, and utterly intolerable in a civilized community” Doe and her spouse are requesting damages totaling at least $25,000.
