CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cleveland police officer accused of raping and pistol-whipping his girlfriend also sent lewd photographs of himself to an unspecified person involved in the investigation, police say.
Patrolman Tommie Griffin III sent the photographs on Jan. 13, the day before he is accused of attacking his 42-year-old girlfriend in the home they shared on State Road in Parma, according to a 6-count indictment.
Griffin has pleaded not guilty to all charges. He remains jailed on $250,000 bond, and is suspended without pay until his case is over.
Police say Griffin attacked his girlfriend while she slept, a day after he caught her with another man in their State Road home. He sat on top of her and pistol-whipped her, then fired two shots from a 9mm handgun into the mattress, inches from her head, police said.
Griffin then ordered the woman to shower, forced her into the basement and made her perform a sex act on him at gunpoint, records say.
Griffin drove from the home to a bar in North Royalton after the attack. Police in that city arrested Griffin at gunpoint.
A search warrant at Griffin’s Sate Road home and in a vehicle there turned up 67 guns, including multiple AR-15 model rifles and an Uzi, according to court records.
Investigators also uncovered the photographs. Parma police and the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office would not say to whom Griffin is accused of sending the photographs.
Griffin was hired as a Cleveland police officer in 1994. He was awarded the department’s distinguished service medal in 2009.
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