A former Wilmington police officer who prosecutors say sent nude photos to a teenage girl he met while on duty at a city community center has been charged in connection with the texts.
A New Castle County grand jury indicted 30-year-old Brandon Cooper on Monday, according to an announcement by the Delaware Department of Justice. Prosecutors charged him with sexual solicitation of a child, a felony, as well as official misconduct and lewdness, both misdemeanors.
According to prosecutors, Cooper met the teen in March 2020 at Kingswood Community Center on the city’s East Side while he was assigned there. He saved her number in his phone as “Yougn” due to her age, prosecutors said.
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Between December 2021 and Jan. 1, 2022, prosecutors said Cooper and the teen “engaged in a series of explicit text messages, including nude photos of the victim and Cooper encouraging sexual acts.”
The Delaware Department of Justice did not detail what the sexual acts were.
The texts include a Dec. 2 video message where Cooper, who is wearing a Wilmington Police Department uniform, says “look” then aims the camera at his exposed, erect penis, prosecutors said. Cooper “also encouraged his victim to keep their communications secret,” the state Justice Department said.
A day after Cooper is accused of sending the video, the Delaware Division of Family Services was called to the teen’s home to respond to a report of sexual abuse not involving Cooper.
Cooper, however, was dispatched to the residence to aid social workers, prosecutors said.
When he arrived, the teen changed her story and said that she wasn’t sexually assaulted. Later, she told a Division of Family Services social worker she recanted her statement “because Cooper had sent her a video of him exposing his penis.”
The social worker contacted Wilmington police about the claims, and the department “immediately” opened an investigation and contacted prosecutors, according to the Delaware Department of Justice.
MORE:How public almost never learned about police officer charged in two excessive force incidents
Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings called the case “grave and disturbing,” adding that Cooper swore an oath “to protect our community from this kind of misconduct.”
“He did not simply break the law, he harmed a minor,” Jennings said. “His actions are a serious violation of the law and an abuse of the position of power and trust that he was privileged to hold.”
Wilmington Police Department spokesman David Karas said Cooper’s “last day of employment” was Feb. 22. Delaware Online/The News Journal confirmed that the 30-year-old resigned from the force.
Previous news articles show that Cooper graduated from Wilmington’s 97th police academy in February 2017.
Cooper is the second former Wilmington Police Department officer to be indicted in two weeks.
On Feb. 28, a New Castle County grand jury indicted 27-year-old Samuel Waters on eight counts, including two felonies, in connection with two separate excessive use-of-force incidents.
The Delaware Department of Justice began investigating Waters – who was fired by a Maryland police department in 2017 before being hired by Wilmington 11 months later – after a video began circulating on social media of Waters slamming a man’s head into a wall at a Southbridge store in late September.
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During their investigation into the Sept. 21 incident, prosecutors said they learned of another use-of-force incident.
On Sept. 12 – nine days prior to the second incident – Waters was involved in another excessive force incident in which he used his nightstick to repeatedly apply downward pressure on the back of a person’s neck, pushing their face into the back of a vehicle and causing injuries.
The person, who was not named in court documents, was not combative or violent with arresting officers. The person had their hands behind their back and was bent over the back of a vehicle while another officer prepared to handcuff them, according to the indictment.
Wilmington police acknowledged to the newspaper that Waters had been fired from the force on Jan. 5.
He was later charged with tampering with public records and perjury, both of which are felonies, as well as three counts of assault, two counts of official misconduct, and one count of falsifying a business record.
Got a story tip or idea? Send to Isabel Hughes at ihughes@delawareonline.com. For all things breaking news, follow her on Twitter at @izzihughes_
