Neptune City Police Officer Damien Broschart has been arrested on cyber harassment charges after sending sexually explicit text messages to an 18 year old woman that he had arrested. Broschart pulled the victim over earlier this month, arrested her on drug charges and moving violations, gave her a ride back to her car after she was released on her own recognizance, and asked her for her phone number. He then started sending her text messages, asked to meet her at her place after his shift was over, and called her from a phone at the Neptune City Police Department (NCPD) after she blocked him.
According to media reports, Broschart turned off his body cam and mobile video recorder before asking the victim for her phone number while giving her a ride back to her car. After getting her number, either from her personally or from her arrest record (we don't know which), he started texting her before the end of his shift. His text said that he though she was "cute" and would like to "pay [her] back" for everything. She did not respond to his messages beyond blocking his number. He responded to the block by calling her from a different number, that number belonged to the NCPD, and he left her voice messages that she did not respond to either. Instead she reported him to his bosses and an internal affairs investigation began.
After Broschart's arrest the NCPD issued official statements saying that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated. Broschart was also charged with hindering apprehension of himself. We can only assume that means that he tried to stop his fellow officers from holding him accountable. He faces three to five years in prison on the hindering charge and up to 18 months on the cyber harassment charge, but New Jersey tend to favor non-incarceration for first time offenders. Despite that prosecutors are saying that they recognize the need to hold bad cops accountable, so hopefully he will get to do some time with guys that he put in there.