A Metropolitan Police Department officer is facing additional allegations of invasive anal and genital searches during stop-and-frisks, WUSA9 reports.
Officer Sean Lojacono was fired by the department last year after video of a stop-and-frisk he performed started earning attention (and widespread backlash) on social media. In it, Lojacono can be seen stopping to speak with a man over suspicion of an open container. The man, M.B. Cottingham, consented to a search after Lojacono asked if he had any weapons. During the pat down, the video shows Lojacono grabbing between Cottingham’s legs several times, and pushing his fingers between Cottingham’s buttocks. Cottingham flinches away and protests; Lojacono then handcuffs him and proceeds to search him in the same manner a second time.
Cottingham and the ACLU of D.C. later sued the department for what they called an “unconstitutional and exceedingly invasive” search. In September, the Department announced that it was firing Lojacono. In December, Cottingham settled with the city for an undisclosed sum.
Lojacono is appealing his firing. On Thursday, he had a hearing before the MPD trial board to discuss the circumstances of his termination and whether he should be reinstated to the force. That’s when the new allegation came to light.
According to WUSA9 reporter Eric Flack, prosecutors in the trial room showed body camera footage of yet another search from Lojacono, carried out on the same day he searched Cottingham—in fact, just a half an hour after. In that footage, Lojacono can be seen searching another man in a similar way that he searched Cottingham. The man reportedly says “you’re sticking your fingers in my ass” and accuses Lojacono of “violating [him] as a man,” the outlet reports.
Turns out, this is the incident Lojacono was actually fired for last year—not the incident with Cottingham, according to WUSA9.
ANOTHER HEADLINE: The search Lojacono is being fired for came LESS THAN 30 MINUTES after another inappropriate search he did just blocks away. The one @wusa9 reported about in our yearlong investigation DC Police: Stop and Frisk – Prosecutors call the 2 incidents “eerily similar"
— Eric Flack (@EricFlackTV) March 7, 2019
The incident was reportedly discovered because Lojacono’s father, a former D.C. police commander, asked Lojacono’s commander to review his son’s case. Lojacono had been taken off the gun recovery unit after the incident with Cottingham started earning public attention, and his father wanted him placed back on, WUSA9 reports. The commander reviewed body camera footage from the incident right after Cottingham, and opened an investigation as a result of that footage. Lojacono was fired following that investigation, according to Flack.
No decision has yet been reached about Lojacono’s reinstatement to MPD. The appeal hearings are ongoing.
Natalie Delgadillo