LEWISVILLE, Texas — Editor's note: The following article contains graphic details of sexual activities. Please read at your discretion.
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Lewisville police officers "allowed" suspected prostitutes to touch them sexually for as long as 20 minutes -- and even recruited fellow officers to go undercover on stings with the promise of obtaining sexual favors on the public's dime, according to discipline letters obtained by WFAA.
Earlier this month, the department announced the conclusion of its internal inquiry into misconduct within its unit that works undercover prostitution stings at spas and massage businesses. The police chief fired three officers and suspended seven others without pay, the department said.
These newly obtained documents share graphic details of the misconduct, as well as how supervisors were punished for allowing incriminating reports to be altered and how there were concerns about the conduct of undercover officers months prior to the initiation of the internal affairs investigation into their actions.
Chief Brook Rollins said he "immediately began an internal investigation" in June after the Denton County District Attorney notified him prosecutors were dropping two dozen cases and returning nearly a quarter of a million dollars in seized assets because they could not prosecute the cases amid concerns about the officers' conduct.
"The information is certainly shocking to go through," Rollins said. "I don’t believe that any of the employees started off with the intent of committing misconduct, I think the intentions were genuinely trying to root out this alleged criminal activity."
In one instance, an officer "allowed" two nude suspected prostitutes to massage his genitals and "rub their bare breasts in [his] face," his discipline letter stated. "There is no legal or operational necessity to allow this physical contact," it said.
The officer did not obtain probable cause for a prostitution arrest during the encounter, the report said. Rollins suspended him for two days without pay.
In another instance, an officer "allowed" a suspected prostitute to touch him for "over five minutes" after the point at which department regulations dictate an undercover officer must stop an encounter, according to the discipline letter. Rollins suspended him without pay for two days.
In another encounter, a different officer asked two suspected prostitutes to take their clothes off after obtaining probable cause and did not break contact with the women as they continued to touch him for more than 20 minutes, the report said.
According to his termination letter, that officer also recruited other officers and city employees to go undercover at massage businesses. One employee told internal affairs investigators the officer told him he "wouldn't have to worry about the money, they get the money from the city to do these types of investigations" and "sometimes when they go in there, they get hand jobs, blow jobs and have sex with the massage business workers as part of the investigation."
The employee's statements were corroborated, internal affairs said, by a female worker who overheard the remarks.
Rollins said there was no evidence the officers had sexual intercourse with any of the people they were investigating. He also said that the suspected prostitutes initiated the sexual touching in every case.
The discipline letters indicated the details of some of the encounters were captured on recording devices, but most were described by officers in their own written reports.
One officer, who was suspended for five days without pay, recruited six others to participate in undercover operations and instructed them to "prepare to be touched by the suspected prostitute," according to his discipline letter.
He also instructed the officers not to orgasm during the encounters, and later admitted to internal affairs investigators those instructions were "inappropriate," according to the letter.
In all, eight officers were disciplined for inappropriate contact with suspected prostitutes, with most receiving less than a week of unpaid leave as punishment, the letters showed.
"In my mind, I think it was equitable for the circumstances," Rollins said when asked about the length of the suspensions.
The internal affairs investigative documents also raise concerns about the actions of the supervisors over the undercover program, who were disciplined for failing to review cases and act appropriately when concerns about officers' actions were raised.
One now-terminated sergeant was informed by another sergeant and a detective that the details of an officer's report "sounded as if he was 'being jerked off,'" the discipline letter said. He failed to follow up on those concerns, his termination letter said.
When contacted by a detective about the report, the officer "modified the original content of [his] report to minimize [his] actions," a discipline letter said.
The officer who made the report received a two-day unpaid suspension, and the sergeant who allowed the narrative to be altered got a single day suspended without pay, the documents showed.
"Each one of the employees that we considered was evaluated on their history, their overall participation in this particular incident and how that discipline fit given the circumstances," Rollins said. "The discipline ranged quite a bit from minimal to maximal."
The department said the incidents involving misconduct began in October 2022 and continued until July 2024.
Rollins, who joined the department as chief in February, said he is embarrassed by the conduct of his officers. He said it is not representative of the department as a whole.
"As the police chief for the city of Lewisville, the buck stops with me," he said. "We should’ve done better and we didn’t. Now we’re going to fix that issue and we’re going to move forward."