DETROIT – A Detroit police officer accused of using a woman’s phone to send explicit photos to himself during a traffic stop in March was sentenced this week.
Derond Martez Crawford, 34, pleaded no contest last month to one count of misconduct in office and was sentenced June 10 to two years probation, with the last six months to be served in the Wayne County Jail.
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The two other charges he faced — using a computer to commit a crime and interfering with a telecommunications device — were dismissed as part of the plea deal.
The charges stem from a March 3 traffic stop during which Crawford stopped a 22-year-old woman around 11 p.m. for improper plates. Upon placing the woman under arrest for an outstanding warrant, police said Crawford gained access to her phone so her mother could be contacted. He then allegedly found and sent explicit photos of the 22-year-old to himself without her consent.
When the woman got her phone back, she noticed that the photos were in emails she had not sent.
Crawford is also accused of going to the woman’s home on March 4 at around 7:40 a.m. while he was off duty, though she did not come to the door.
“It is hard to imagine what the defendant was thinking when he engaged in this alleged conduct,” said Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy in response to the sentencing. “He did not have an articulable reason to even look into the phone for anything other than her mother’s phone number in the first place and the steps he took after that intrusion were completely inappropriate.”
Crawford resigned from the Detroit Police Department on March 18, according to police.