1 Rape Charge Dropped Against Dunedin Man, Former Cop

Prosecutors have decided not to pursue a rape allegation that dates back to 2002 against former Tarpon Springs Police Officer Larry Kobielnik, who lives in Dunedin. He’s still jailed on two more recent charges.

He, however, still stands accused of two more recent attacks and remains behind bars in Pinellas County on $1 million bond as a result.

Kobielnik, 38, of Dunedin, was arrested earlier this year after a woman said he picked her up in Clearwater, posing as a cop offering her a ride. The woman told authorities Kobielnik refused to let her go, told her she was under arrest and then drove her to a home in Dunedin where he is accused of raping her.

A second woman came forward with similar allegations a few days later.

"Woman" cop sexually assaults two real women

D.C. officer on trial in sex assault case

Larry Seay is accused of sexually assaulting three women while he was in uniform patrolling his Northwest Washington beat. Seay, 39, a 3rd District patrol officer who has been suspended without pay, is charged with several counts of sexual assault. The women at one time worked as prostitutes in the area of 11th Street and Massachusetts Avenue NW, where Seay patrolled, prosecutors said.

One of the womentestified Wednesday that she was accosted one evening in July 2010 as she walked to a gas station to buy a pack of cigarettes. She said she was seven months pregnant at the time.

The woman said Seay approached her, asked where she was going and searched her purse. She said he ordered her to meet him in an alley, where he offered her $50. Seay told her that if she refused him, he would “make something happen” and arrest her, the woman testified.

The woman testified that she and Seay went into an apartment building and that he assaulted her in the stairwell. “I was scared and very reluctant,” the woman testified

A second woman, who is now a college student in Northern Virginia testified that she was walking to meet a friend in July 2010 when Seay, in a police van, stopped her and ordered her to meet him in a nearby alley. The 38-year-old woman testified that Seay refused to wear a condom. “He made me have sex with him when I didn’t want to unprotected,” she said, at times in tears.

The woman said after they had sex, he threw $40 on the ground and wiped himself with a tissue. She said she stuffed the tissue and money in her purse and then went to a hospital, where she told a nurse she had been raped by a police officer.

The Seay case is not the only recent criminal case involving a D.C. officer.

In October, an officer was charged with firing his service weapon into an occupied car after trying to pay a transgender woman for sex in 2011. The officer, Kenneth Furr, was acquitted of the more serious charge of assault with intent to kill but was found guilty of solicitation and assault with a deadly weapon.

In another case, Wendel Palmer, a 22-year veteran of the force, is awaiting trial on charges that he sexually assaulted a teenage girl. 

Milwaukee Police officer arrested for sexual assault, stalking

MILWAUKEE - Milwaukee Police have arrested one of their own after an investigation by their Internal Affairs division.

Sergeant Alex Lopez is being held in the Waukesha County Jail for alleged sexual assault and stalking. The arrest comes from a complaint by a woman who Lopez had been in a relationship with.

According to Inspector William Jessup, Lopez has been a member of the police for 16 years. He has been suspended pending a further investigation.

Judge orders house arrest for Vegas officer in felony oppression, misdemeanor lewdness case

A Las Vegas judge set bail at $16,000 and placed a suspended police officer on house arrest pending a Jan. 14 preliminary hearing on allegations that he sexually intimidated women he met during routine calls.

Solomon Coleman, is charged with  oppression under color of office with threat of force, a felony, and four misdemeanors including gross lewdness and taking pictures of a person’s private area.

Among other allegations, he is accused of remaining at the home of a woman whose boyfriend had been arrested in June on a domestic violence charge and instructing the woman to disrobe so he could check her for bruises and photograph her body.

The woman told the Las Vegas Review-Journal for a Thursday report that her 5-year-old son walked into the bedroom during the incident and Coleman ushered the boy away.

 Coleman later exposed himself to the woman in her bathroom, the newspaper reported, citing the woman, then returned to the woman’s home later, but she didn’t open the door.

Other charges stem from allegations that Coleman used his phone to record more than 20 minutes of a personal sex video from another woman’s cellphone, which police had seized during an arrest.

Police matched Coleman’s patrol records with the date the video was recorded and determined he had taken the phone from a California woman during a traffic stop in June 2012, the Review-Journal said.

sexual intimidation

Nev. Officer Under House Arrest for Sexual Misconduct

A Las Vegas Metro Police officer was placed under house arrest Thursday and faces multiple charges alleging he sexually intimidated and harassed women he met on duty.

Officer Solomon Coleman, 28, appeared in court Thursday. He was charged with oppression under color of law, gross lewdness, and taking pictures of a person's private area, reports the Review-Journal. Police have identified at least five woman the officer met while wearing his badge. Bail was set at $16,000.

Lauderhill police officers Thomas Merenda and Franklin Hartley turned themselves in

Prosecutors are hitting a Lauderhill cop where it hurts, charging him with a felony for getting a female drunken driver to punch him in the genitals, according to the Broward State Attorney's Office. A second officer in the case is being accused of having sex with the passenger of the same car, all the while threatening to arrest her as well.

Officers Thomas Merenda and Franklin Hartley turned themselves in Thursday night. Both are charged with unlawful compensation, a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison, and battery, a misdemeanor punishable by up to 60 days, stemming from a May 24, 2012, encounter with the two women, who had been drinking at the Vegas Cabaret strip club on University Drive.

Milwaukee officer charged with sexual assault

A Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department officer sentenced to 40 years in prison for child porn photos is now charged with 12 counts of sexual assault of a child.

Philip Wentzel, an inmate at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terra Haute, Ind., is accused of performing sexual acts with the young victims he was filming in May 2010 at a campsite in Fond du Lac County, according to a criminal complaint.

Wentzel has been in custody at the Fond du Lac County Jail since June, awaiting a plea and sentencing hearing, said Fond du Lac County Circuit Court Judge Gary Sharpe. Wentzel appeared in court Thursday with public defender Laurel Munger.

The sexual assault charges, filed in February, state that videos obtained from Wentzel show him performing sexual acts on girls ages 7, 14 and 15, and that the children appear drugged, according to the complaint.

Wentzel was sentenced in December 2012 after pleading guilty in federal court to seven counts of producing child pornography.

Judge orders Las Vegas officer to turn himself in to jail

Solomon Coleman a Las Vegas police officer charged with sexually intimidating and harassing women he met on duty was ordered to report to jail by a judge Thursday.

Justice of the Peace William Kephart ordered Coleman to turn himself into the Clark County jail by 9 a.m. Friday and set bail at $16,000 for the five-year veteran of the Metropolitan Police Department.

Coleman was charged with oppression under color of law, gross lewdness and taking pictures of a person’s private area. One count of oppression under color of law is a felony case. Prosecutors charged Coleman for encounters with two women, but police identified at least five women the officer met while wearing his badge.

Police said he developed a pattern of starting “relationships” with women he met at crime scenes and on routine calls, using his authority as an officer to gain their trust.

Coleman’s misdeeds were uncovered in June after the first woman complained about his behavior.

Former Edmonds cop convicted of sex crime

EVERETT, Wash. Cop Daniel Lavely was convicted of having sex with a woman while on duty and faces up to a year in jail when he is sentenced Sept. 23 in Snohomish County Superior Court. Prosecutors said he took advantage of a homeless drug addict he believed was a prostitute. The 30-year-old woman testified she agreed to have sex but was afraid. The Daily Herald reports she has a criminal history and is currently in prison. Lavely testified and denied having sex with the woman, but said she propositioned him while she was in his patrol car.