A police officer with the Metropolitan Police Department has been charged with bribery in federal court. The Washington Post was the first to report the news.
Walter Lee, an MPD officer who’s been on the force for nearly seven years, allegedly accepted $15,000 in bribes in exchange for information contained in the department’s traffic crash reports, according to prosecutors. It’s unclear from the court filing exactly what information was handed over or why.
Lee has been placed on non-contact status following the charges, according to an MPD spokesperson. He is currently an officer in the Sixth District and joined the force in July 2012. Lee allegedly accepted bribes between February 1 and February 28, 2019, court filings say. The complaint was filed on June 7.
On the same day prosecutors charged Lee, they also charged another man, Marvin Parker, with bribing police officers to get information contained in traffic crash reports. The court filing says that Parker paid two people within the police department for the traffic crash reports between August 23, 2015 and October 11, 2017.
According to the Post, both men were charged in a “criminal information,” which does not require a grand jury’s vote and suggests they are likely in talks with a prosecutor regarding a plea deal.
Natalie Delgadillo