CLEVELAND–He was sworn to
uphold the law, but instead, a Cleveland police officer is punished for
uploading vulgar pictures of himself to women. Investigators said he even
tracked down a woman he had given a ticket to last year.
“We look to officers to serve
and protect us, not put us in uncomfortable situations and abusing their power
to make us do things that we really don’t want to do.”
A 24-year-old woman told FOX 8
that last November she was involved in an accident on I-71 near Fulton Road.
Cleveland police officer Thomas Tewell was one of the officers who arrived at
the scene.
“At first, he was making sure
that I was ok, and then it kind of turned into flirting,” she said.
The woman said Tewell and
another officer gave her a ride back to the second district to wait for someone
to pick her up.
“I was sitting in the waiting
area and he came inside and gave me a citation, and I was like ‘why are you
giving this to me now?’ and I didn’t realize until after the fact that it was
probably just so he could get my personal information,” she explained.
In April of this year, Tewell
was charged with breaking several administrative rules.
The document says for this
incident, he “engaged in inappropriate behavior to a citizen to whom you were
issuing a traffic citation.”
It claims for two consecutive
days after the accident, he “contacted the citizen through social media, for
example Facebook, unsolicited, inviting her out to have drinks.”
“Literally the next day is when
he added me as a friend and started sending me inappropriate messages, like we
should go out sometime. I felt like he was just abusing his powers as a police
officer by making me feel like I had to go out with him if I didn’t want this
on my record,” the woman said.
The woman’s case was dismissed
when Tewell did not show up for court in November.
The charging documents also
reveal that June 30 of last year, Tewell “posted or transmitted a sexually
explicit photograph to a female.”
It says he was “advised by a
female to leave her alone after she received an unsolicited sexually explicit
photograph from you.”
Investigators said he contacted
that woman again twice in September.
“We don’t condone his behavior.
We don’t want this kind of behavior from our police officers and we’re hoping
that he learned his lesson,” said Jeff Follmer, president of the Cleveland
Police Patrolmen’s Association.
Earlier this month, Tewell was
given a 25-day suspension, without pay. We were unable to reach the officer.
City officials told FOX 8 Tewell is currently on military deployment and will
serve his punishment when he returns.
“Honestly, I don’t think that
that’s enough. I don’t think that he should be a police officer anymore,” the
woman said.
Tewell was a probationary
officer at the time of the offenses. Follmer said Tewell has been on the force
for about two or three years.