By Danny Fenster
ticklethewire.com
Former sheriff of Worth County, Mo. Neal Wayne “Bear” Groom was sentenced Tuesday to 18 months in prison followed by a year of supervised release for violating the civil rights of several women by getting them to expose parts of their body, according to a statement from the Justice Department.
Following an FBI probe, Groom pleaded guilty on August 17 to coercing women into exposing body parts to him, in violation of Fourth Amendment protections from unreasonable search and seizure. Groom also admitted to taking photographs of the women’s exposed or partially covered breasts.
Groom often said he was looking for domestic violence injuries or drug injection marks to force women into revealing their flesh, though he admitted in the plea that he conducted the searches for no legitimate law enforcement purpose, according to the Justice Department.
U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri Beth Phillips said in a statement: “We will not tolerate law enforcement officers who take advantage of the individuals whom they are sworn to protect. Such individuals shake the public’s confidence in law enforcement and thus harm not only the victims they target but also the community at large.”
