Odesa court acquits former police officer accused of bribery

The Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa found the former head of the investigation department of the Prymorskyi Police Department in the city not guilty of extortion.

As noted in the court' s verdict, the case has been pending since 2018, when the woman was still working in the police.

At that time, two people filed a complaint against her - an acquaintance who reported that the police officer demanded $20,000 from her for assistance in investigating criminal proceedings in which she was a victim, and a man who turned to law enforcement a few months later and reported extortion of $3,000 for investigators to investigate the case more actively on his application.

In the second case, the first applicant became an intermediary between the investigator and the bribe giver. In the end, it was while receiving $3,000 that the police officer was detained. At the trial, she did not admit her guilt, but claimed that the bribe was a provocation and insisted that she had no authority to resolve the case of the man who had bribed her.

The complainants gave conflicting testimony in court about which of them the police officer demanded to give her an undue benefit, and later the woman who claimed to have been extorted $20,000 said she had become a mediator in a second case under the control of law enforcement. It also turned out that she had been repeatedly prosecuted for fraud, forgery of documents, stamps, seals, and bribery. The man who was extorted for $3,000 said that the investigator did not personally demand anything.

The court ruled the evidence inadmissible due to a violation of jurisdiction - contrary to the law, the prosecutor assigned the case to the investigative department of the Security Service of Ukraine in Odesa region, although before the State Bureau of Investigation started its work, it was exclusively the prosecutor's office.

The court also noted that the installation of cameras and microphones in the applicant's car required the permission of the investigating judge. But the woman could not confirm that she had authorized the entry into her car.

As a result, the defendant was acquitted due to the fact that the prosecutor's office was unable to prove her guilt.

Кирило Бойко