A D.C. cop has been arrested and charged with making child pornography.
Charging documents obtained by WUSA9 allege that Metropolitan Police Department Officer Marc Washington took naked photographs of a 15-year-old girl at the beginning of December.
The girl had been reported missing by her mother a few days earlier, according to the charging documents. Washington was the officer to take the mother's report at her apartment, and also received the mother's phone call asking for the girl to be taken off the missing persons list on Dec. 1.
Later that day, say police, Washington returned to the apartment. He asked to speak with the girl privately, purportedly to talk to her about where she'd been. Inside her bedroom, the documents allege, Washington asked the girl to remove her shirt and bra in order to photograph any injuries she may have suffered -- even though the girl told Washington that she didn't have any injuries. She complied with his requests, and he photographed her without her shirt on.
Washington then asked the girl to take off her boxer shorts and underwear in order take pictures of tattoos on her hips, for "identification purposes," according to the documents, and he photographed her vagina.
After Washington left the apartment, the girl told her mother what happened, and the mother called 911. When Washington learned of the call, he deleted the photos of the girl, but these -- along with "numerous images of unidentified individuals," at least two of whom appear to be minors, according to police -- were recovered on the camera by police.
Washington, who the AP reports has been with D.C.'s police force since 2006, was arrested by D.C.'s Youth Investigations Division and the Internal Affairs Bureau on Monday.
“We invest a great amount of time and effort to ensure that we are hiring the right people and we continue to proactively monitor integrity across the department,” Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said in a statement. “But to learn of an allegation of this kind against a person who is sworn to protect our children, it is both shocking and disturbing. We are fortunate that someone came forward to alert us of this behavior to ensure that we prevent future victims.”
The police are investigating if Washington was involved in other "similar offenses," according to a news release, and asking anyone with information to contact the department.