News

2 Officers Suspended, Accused Of Explicit Emails

ORLANDO, Fla.,None — Two Orlando police officers have been suspended without pay on Tuesday for repeatedly sending sexually-charged emails from schools, officials said.

An Orange County corrections investigator notified the Orlando Police Department about the emails, the department said.

Internal affairs looked into the allegations. One officer received a 40-hour suspension and the other an 8-hour suspension.

An inappropriate email from Orlando police truancy officer, Kevin Barnes, was sent to other officers while he was on duty, the department said. The Orange County jail first told OPD about the emails because Barnes sent emails to at least one corrections officer, police said.

An OPD investigation revealed Barnes used his Orange County Public School email address and sent at least one dozen pornographic and explicit emails in a one-month time period. Barnes sent it to Memorial Middle School resource officer, Ralph Mills, police said. Mills forwarded some of those messages, police said.

At one point, Mills warned Barnes that he could get in trouble and then tried to block the dirty emails and then wrote, “Kevin, you realize this could get you written up right? You getting a second puberty or something?”

Mills told investigators that Barnes had sent him coupons in the past. He thought one of the email's was innocent so he forwarded it to his personal email address.

Mills told investigators he believed an email titled "Hooters" could be a coupon.

Barnes tried to justify the email and said he thought the "Hooters" email was a screen saver.

“I would send the email before with Hooters. It was a picture of a bunch of different species of owls,” said Barnes.

Barnes then told investigators that he regretted it, and that it was a prank.

Three other Orlando police officers who received the emails were not disciplined. Investigators said they did not respond or forward the emails they received.