A Kansas judge sentenced an ex-police officer to more than 23 years of prison on Monday , for a series of sexual crimes in which he assaulted at least 10 women in the span of several years.
Todd W. Allen, a former Hutchinson Police Department officer, pleaded guilty in Reno County District Court to 12 charges of felony sex crimes and five charges of breaching privacy in April. Allen worked at the Hutchinson Police Department in Kansas for over 25 years. He would, however, target women in their vehicles in parks and parking lots during his off-hours.
According to NBC affiliate KSN, Allen was sentenced 282 months or 23 and a 1/2 years. After his release, he will be required to register as an offender of sexual offenses and placed on parole.
KSN reported that victims were allowed to speak at the sentencing of Allen. Some people are afraid to walk around at night after Allen’s assaults.
She said, “It is hard to feel safe even in a room with officers. Todd Allen has destroyed that feeling of safety for me, and for those he has hurt.”
Allen knocked on their windows or shone a flashlight in them, posing either as a police officer or securing the park. This happened at least ten times between 2012 and 2018, Allen. Court documents stated that Allen would ask the women if they used drugs, and then demand they get out of their cars and follow him around to the back of the vehicle or nearby.
Allen allegedly touched women in an inappropriate manner without their consent under the pretext of pat-downs to look for contraband. Allen ordered women to stay in the vehicle if their friends or significant others were with them.
The charges for sex crimes are: 2 counts of rape and 2 counts of attempted attempted rape; 1 count of aggravated indecent liberty with a minor, 3 counts of aggravated sex battery, 2 counts of attempted attempted aggravated sex battery and 2-counts of kidnapping.
Allen was finally caught for the breaches of privacy crimes spanning from 2019 to 2022.
In June 2022, police responded to an emergency call from a Hutchinson citizen who said that his camera had captured a man in gloves peering over his fence at a party with mostly females on the other side.
According to court documents, Allen was stopped on his bike by officers who matched the description given by the resident.
Court documents stated that Allen, in a voluntary police interview weeks later, admitted being the prowler involved in the June case, as well as admitting he “could’ve been” the suspect for multiple other cases of breach of privacy.
Thomas R. Stanton, Reno County’s District Attorney, wrote in a filing to the court that Allen searched and viewed the incidents to which he later admitted guilt in the police department database several times even though he wasn’t assigned to investigate the cases.
Stanton’s document stated that Allen had admitted his crimes and was only able to say that the incidents were “sexually motivated”.
