A former Lakewood Police Department agent told investigators he had affairs with multiple women he met on the job and had sex with them while on duty, including in his patrol car, according to an arrest affidavit from the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
, 42, was arrested on suspicion of 10 misdemeanors after an investigation showed he muted his body-worn camera, including while interacting with a woman who accused him of sexual misconduct. He is also accused of using police databases to search for information connected to a woman he was having an affair with.
Gearhart resigned from the Lakewood Police Department on Sept. 15 while on administrative leave. Lakewood’s internal affairs unit was investigating allegations that he propositioned an intoxicated woman after he arrested her on July 8 and was transporting her to a detox facility in his patrol car.
The allegations came to light after Lakewood police, including Gearhart, responded to a 911 call involving the same woman on July 24, and the woman recognized Gearhart and told other officers he tried to have sex with her.
Lakewood investigators found Gearhart muted his body-worn camera while transporting the woman to the detox facility during the July 8 call, and kept it muted as he sat in the parking lot for 25 minutes with the woman in the back seat.
Lakewood police turned the case over to the DA’s office when they found evidence of possible criminal behavior, the department said Tuesday.
Gearhart now works as a non-sworn detention deputy at the , also known as the , which is operated by The Geo Group.
In a Tuesday email, an unnamed U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Gearhart “is not a DHS employee. He is a contracted employee at the GEO detention center.”
Officials with The Geo Group did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Gearhart is not facing criminal charges for the sexual misconduct alleged in the affidavit because of “the passage of time, the evidence available and applicable law,” officials with the DA’s office wrote.Gearhart slept with “too many, one too many” women while on duty, he told investigators, including women he arrested, pulled over for traffic stops or who were witnesses. He carried out the affairs in his patrol car, at a motel or at their homes while he was on duty.
“(The investigator) asked Agent Gearhart if he was on duty and essentially getting paid to have sex. Agent Gearhart affirmed but stated, ‘She wasn’t a victim.'”
Gearhart is facing six official misconduct and four cybercrime charges for intentionally muting and deleting video from his body-worn camera and searching state and national crime databases for information about one of the women he was sleeping with, as well as information about her ex-husband and family members.
He is also accused of muting and deleting body-worn camera footage after he arrested a woman for drunken driving on Aug. 1, 2023. The woman told investigators Gearhart flirted with her and let her use her vape and slip her handcuffs to the front while he was taking her to the hospital for a breathalyzer test.
In a statement Tuesday, Lakewood Police Chief Philip Smith said the department is taking the allegations with “profound urgency.”
“The badge represents a sacred bond between this organization and the citizens of Lakewood. To see that bond violated is not just a breach of policy; it is a betrayal of everything we stand for,” Smith said. “Abhorrent behavior has never been tolerated, and it will never be tolerated, in the Lakewood Police Department.”
Gearhart was arrested Tuesday and released from the Arapahoe County Jail on personal recognizance.
