Worst of the Month — May

So for May we’ve chosen the case of Deputy James Haworth from the Pasco Police Department in Washington.  Haworth is facing felony rape and sexual assault charges involving a teenage family member.

Here is an excerpt from the Tri-City Herald:

Haworth is accused of sexual contact with the teenager several times from 2008 to 2013, including when she was sleeping. Some of the allegations occurred when she was younger than 17, according to court documents…

When she was 17, she drank alcohol with Haworth and became intoxicated, according to court documents. She accused him of taking advantage of her drunken state to perform sexual acts both when she was unconscious and when she was awake.

Haworth’s electronic devices were searched and investigators found several nude photographs of the teen taken when she was about 18, according to court documents.

She said she had taken them to send to a boyfriend but had not sent them to Haworth and did not know Haworth had them. She said she had deleted them.

Haworth said he had not seen the photographs that were found on his iTunes backup account and did not know how they got onto his phone, according to court documents.

Prior to his recent suspension, Officer Haworth was assigned to a task force that investigated sex crimes against children.