Cop stops woman, asks how she wants to ‘get out of this,’ then rapes her in AL, feds say
A former police officer admitted to sexually assaulting a woman while on duty in Alabama and to soliciting sexually explicit photos of a minor, federal officials said.
Jarrod Gailen Webster, who worked for the Killen Police Department, pleaded guilty to one count of deprivation of rights under color of law and one count of sexual exploitation of children, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama said in a March 5 news release.
He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison, five years of supervised release and up to a $250,000 fine for the first charge and 15 to 30 years in prison with five years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine for the second, officials said.
“Webster disgraced the uniform when he abused his authority, and his conviction affirms that the FBI has zero tolerance for officials who prey on the citizens they have sworn to protect,” Carlton Peeples, special agent in charge of the FBI Birmingham Division, said in the release.
McClatchy News reached out to Webster’s attorneys March 5 but did not receive an immediate response.
According to court documents, Webster pulled a woman over Nov. 12, 2023, and asked her how she wanted to “get out of this.”
The woman told Webster she wasn’t going to do anything for him, and he handcuffed her, took off his vest, turned off his body camera and raped her in the back of his patrol car, prosecutors said.
He then threatened to find her using the address on her I.D. if she told anyone, prosecutors said.
DNA evidence collected by a sexual assault nurse examiner matched that of Webster’s, according to court documents.
Webster also admitted to receiving sexual images on a social media app between June 2016 and October 2018 from a minor whom he met at an Air Force base graduation, officials said.
“Webster took an oath to protect and serve citizens of his community. He violated that oath when he sexually assaulted a woman and exploited a minor,” Prim Escalona, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, said in the release. “We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to ensure that those who violate positions of public trust are held accountable for their actions.”
He is set to be sentenced May 20, according to officials.
Killen is about a 130-mile drive northwest from Birmingham.
