A 12-year veteran of the Oro Valley Police Department resigned in November, after it was discovered he used his department phone for “sexting” and to exchange lewd photos while on duty, newly released documents show.
Jason P. Lindley, 40, resigned in lieu of termination Nov. 14, after he was placed on administrative leave with pay Oct. 19 while the department looked into the incident, according to OVPD’s internal investigation.
Although Lindley quit before the investigation was complete, investigators with the department’s Office of Professional Standards determined Lindley had violated several department policies, including engaging in sexual activity on duty, neglect of duty and conduct unbecoming of a department member, the report shows.
On Oct. 12, an unidentified police officer was using an anonymous social networking app called “Whisper” as part of an investigation when the officer discovered a post made two days before, showing a photo of an unknown male officer wearing a ballistic vest with the text “Do women fantasize about cops?” written over the image, the report says.
The person who posted the photo was in Oro Valley at the time and using the screen name “five-oh,” which led the officer to wonder if the person was pretending to be a cop or if an actual police officer was “inappropriately using their position of trust and authority to leverage a romantic relationship,” the report says.
The officer entered into a private chat with “five-oh” — a slang word for police — and asked him to send a photo, which the officer recognized as Lindley. To make sure the user wasn’t falsely claiming to be Lindley, the officer requested a photo in uniform and received a photo of Lindley in his OVPD uniform, with the name patch and badge removed, according to the report.
The officer sent screen shots of the correspondence to Sgt. Matthew Horetski with the Office Of Professional Standards, who opened an investigation .
Lindley spoke to investigators Oct. 19, telling them that he’d been using Whisper to chat for about a year and had previously dealt with a pornography addiction. He admitted to taking pictures of his genitals and receiving sexually graphic photos from women while on duty and with his work phone, according to the report.
He was placed on administrative leave and handed over his phone to investigators, who found 20,989 images, 141 videos and 9,178 chats. Of the videos, 126 were found to be sexual in nature.
There were multiple videos of Lindley masturbating, and a cross-reference with radio logs indicated that he was on-duty while he filmed at least one of the videos.
Horetski reviewed all of the images, saying in the report that only “a small percentage” of them weren’t related to sexual content. None of the photos reflected child pornography, but Horetski noted that dozens of the photos were concerning, either because Lindley appeared in his uniform or department vehicle, or because of the graphic sexual nature, the report said.
Investigators also found references made by Lindley that he wouldn’t give a traffic ticket to a woman who provided sexual favors.
On Nov. 14, Lindley returned for a follow-up interview but submitted his letter of resignation before answering any questions.
“I find it extremely concerning that Officer Lindley would knowingly have any of the sexually explicit material on a department issued phone, let alone the sheer volume of explicit material that was found,” Horetski wrote in the report. “Acting in this manner while on duty, compounded by an incident in which Officer Lindley was sending and receiving sexually explicit material with more than one person while on the way to, and while at a SWAT call out, is a serious breach of the public’s trust.”
Lindley is scheduled to appear before the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board next week, during which the board will decide whether to an accept an agreement with Lindley for discipline of his state certification, according to AZPOST records.
“We want the community to know that when we found out about this situation, we investigated quickly,” said Lt. Kara Riley, an OVPD spokeswoman, expressing the department’s apologies to the community regarding the situation.
