Mpls. police officer accused of sexually abusing girls
A Minneapolis police officer is facing criminal sexual conduct charges involving several young girls.
The officer is a 32-year-old man who lives in Andover. Anoka County Sheriff spokesman commander Paul Sommer says the department started the investigation several weeks ago.
They discovered that the man allegedly used social media websites to contact several girls between the ages of 12 and 14.
"Which gave us about 9,000 pages worth of documents, including chat messages back and forth, photographs — things like that," said Sommer.
Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau released a statement saying she has ordered an Internal Affairs investigation and has placed the officer on administrative leave.
Harteau's statement also said that if charges are true, they are horrific and go against the values of the Minneapolis Police Department.
MPR News is not naming the suspect because he has not been formally charged. Sommer said he expects charges to be filed tomorrow.
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