6 of America's Creepiest Cops Accused Of Pulling Over Women To Hit On Them And Worse

They were hired to protect and serve — but instead, these cops are accused of being total pervs. The police officers and state troopers on this list are from all over the country, from Florida to New Jersey to Ohio, but they all have one thing in common: allegedly abusing their power as officers of the law to be completely creepy. Some cops allegedly used their badge to pull women drivers over just to hit on them when they should have been working, others are accused of being peeping Toms. In another case, multiple women came forward with stories of misconduct.  

1. Joseph Mercado

This Florida deputy (pictured above) was arrested and subsequently fired after he was accused of masturbating in front of a woman that he also allegedly touched against her will. In February 2018, Deputy Joseph Mercado went to the victim’s home "under the guise of discussing a serious incident that he witnessed,” according to an arrest report obtained by Oxygen. There, he allegedly masturbated in front of her despite her numerous requests for him to stop and leave. He is accused of then putting ejaculate on her chest area and also trying to put it "on the victim’s lips, prior to her pulling away."

The two were not in any kind of romantic relationship with each other. Here's a clip of him from better times:

2. Eric Richardson

This New Jersey trooper allegedly lied to dispatchers and turned off recording devices so he could pull over and hit on women, according to the Associated Press. He's also accused of falsifying records to cover up his misdeeds, which officials say go back to 2016. Trooper Eric Richardson was indicted in April 2018 and charged with official misconduct, criminal coercion and records tampering. Court documents allege that he threatened to arrest a woman if she didn’t give him her number. The trooper’s dashboard camera was turned off during that interaction. He also told dispatchers he had pulled over a man. Before the allegations came to light, he was honored for his work fighting bullying.

3. Marquice Prather

Another New Jersey Trooper accused of abusing his badge, Marquice Prather was arrested last year and accused of "routinely" pulling over young women to ask for dates. Court documents state he would falsely report the gender of people he pulled over as male to disguise how many women drivers he was stopping. Prather was also accused of turning off his microphone and blaming the missing recordings on technical issues. He allegedly would ask women for their cellphones, then bring the phones back to his car to look through them, sometimes copying intimate photos and videos, according to the court documents. In March of 2018, he admitted to tampering with evidence and falsifying records.  As part of a plea deal, he will avoid jail if he completes probation, according to New Brunswick Today.

4. Dwight Pewett

Multiple women have claimed that Officer Dwight Pewett of the Cincinnati Police sexually harassed them. Women complained of groping, unwanted sexual advances and said he showed them explicit photos, according to Cincinnati.com. Two of the three women who accused him of the misconduct, which allegedly happened over the course of a decade, were fellow officers on the force. One female officer said that in 2004, Pewett pulled into a parking lot while she was a passenger, and asked if she wanted to touch his penis. Just days later, Pewett allegedly removed a naked photo, which was allegedly tucked into his police hat, to show her. He allegedly said at the time:  “See, I wasn’t lying about how big my penis was.” Pewett denied the allegations and is still on the job after a 12-day suspension in 2016, according to Cincinnati.com.

5. Robert Francis

This off-duty NYPD detective was arrested and accused of exposing himself and masturbating while standing outside a Long Island home in 2017. He was apparently watching two underage girls in the window, according to Elite Daily. Detective Robert Francis was charged with four counts of public lewdness, after he was connected with at least three other incidents, according to the New York Daily News. Francis admitted to the behavior, which he blamed on “tough times,” according to the criminal complaint by Rockville Centre police. His lawyer later said the confession was coerced, Newsday reported.

6. Glenn Woolard

This award-winning Pennsylvania police officer lost his job after admitting to exposing himself to three women in 2017. In one incident, Woolard was masturbating while driving. Two women spotted him exposing himself. Woolard claimed at the time that he was only masturbating to stay awake, according to The Morning Call in Allentown. On another occasion, Woolard was caught masturbating in the parking lot of Dick’s Sporting Goods, WCAU in Philadelphia reported. Woolard had said at the time of his arrest that he wasn't doing it for sexual gratification, but was just trying to stay awake while driving home, court records say.
[Photo: Pasco County Sheriff's Office]