COP CHARGED IN TEENAGE SEX SCANDAL (Video Leads to Evidence of Affair With Police Explorer)

APBNews.com/Seamus McGraw

Michael Lee Peters, a 30-year-old police officer, is involved in a sex scandal with four teenagePolice Explorers that has brought turmoil to this tiny farming community. The scandal, which firstsurfaced several weeks ago with the theft of a sexually explicit videotape of the four 17 year oldsfrolicking together, has cost the office his job and has left him facing a raft of misdemeanorcharges, including official misconduct, sexual misconduct and third degree sexual contact. It hasalso cost the two boys and two girls a good deal of humiliation. According to Police Chief BobMcBride, the kids made the tape on a Saturday afternoon and because all were members of a localPolice Explorer's troop, they allegedly went to Peters to borrow police equipment to make copies ofthe tape. Peters has denied any involvement with the tape and does not appear on it. The teens hadintended to keep the copies for themselves, but a friend of one of the boys stole the tape and soonit was being circulated all over town. Rumors started at about the same time that Peters had beensexually intimate with one of the two girls. McBride used an outside agency to investigate theallegations and he turned to police in nearby Coos Bay who soon found the evidence that they neededto charge Peters in the diary of his alleged teenage love. Peters was arrested Monday on chargesrelated to sex with the teenager and he resigned from the police department. He was released on hisown recognizance.

(Bandon, Oregon)