Prosecutors in Contra Costa County, just across the San Francisco Bay, have filed felony charges against former California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer Sean Harrington, who is accused of stealing and distributing photos from cellphones .
Harrington's attorney, Michael Rains, told NBC that his client has resigned from the California Highway Patrol and apologized for what he did. "This act is inexcusable," he said, "It is impulsive, immature and reprehensible in every sense of the word."
Rains sent an emailed statement to Ars confirming that his client had resigned from the California Highway Patrol (CHP), but did not respond to further questions.
“Former Harrington officer apologizes to all the women whose personal information was stolen,” Rains wrote. “He is in a difficult position, having tarnished the reputation of the California Highway Patrol and law enforcement in general.”
The case stemmed from a woman, referred to in court documents as “Jane Doe #1,” who was arrested in early October for driving under the influence in San Ramon, California.
Doe, who turned over her phone and password, later discovered that the same officer had sent her topless and underwear-clad photos from her iPhone. Investigators also uncovered a similar incident involving “Jane Doe #2,” who was arrested in Livermore in August 2014. On Friday, Harrington was formally charged with two counts of “theft and copying of computer data,” which are felonies. The court records state: “This was not the first time Harrington had illegally accessed a female inmate’s cell phone. He admitted to doing so multiple times over the past several years. Harrington stated that he first learned how to access cell phones while working in the Los Angeles office. When he was assigned to the Dublin office, he learned from other officers how to access cell phones of female inmates and view nude photos. When police officers found photos, they shared them via text message with other police officers or individuals – they considered it a game.
A message led to his arrest
According to the warrants, the story begins in the early morning hours of August 29, 2014. When Harrington, along with his partner, Officer Pope, stopped a woman (Jane Doe #1) for a dangerous lane change on Interstate 680 near Crow Canyon, and gave her a breathalyzer test. Her blood alcohol level was measured at 0.29 percent, well above the 0.08 percent limit allowed by California law.
During the breathalyzer test, one of the officers asked for her phone number, which she gave. Harrington then asked for her passcode, which she also gave to the officers. Doe was arrested and booked into the Martinez Detention Center, in the northern tip of the county, and was released a few hours later.
Five days later, according to the warrant, Doe looked at her iPad at home and saw that in the Messages app, six photos had been sent via iMessage to an area code that started with 707.
The photos sent were mostly topless, in bikinis or underwear. Two of the photos included a “friend” of hers in similar poses.
Doe told investigators that she “did not give permission for anyone to see these photos. Jane Doe said she looked at iPhone and you don’t see the messages.”
She then looked up the phone number the photos had been sent to, and found that it was directly related to Harrington, who had arrested her.
In a statement, District Attorney Mark Peterson said it was the “first time in the history of the county that an officer has committed a crime of this nature.”
