MN court rules being a cop doesn't entitle you to cop a feel

Photo by bloomsberries

​A Minneapolis police officer earned a scathing admonishment from the Minnesota Court of Appeals on Tuesday when it overturned a woman's prostitution conviction because the officer fondled the woman's breasts during a sting operation. Betsy Lou Burkland appealed her conviction on that grounds that it violated her constitutional rights.

"When government conduct is sufficiently outrageous that it is repugnant to the criminal justice system and shocking to a universal sense of justice, it violates the constitutional right to due process," wrote Judge Wilhelmina M. Wright. The officer was out of line after he initiated "sexual contact by fondling the breasts of the target of the investigation" allowed the situation to escalate "by allowing the target to rub the officer's penis" and "inquired whether a 'release' was included" in the $100 cost of his massage, she said.

You can read the entire ruling here.