Tennessee- A probe into a former state trooper accused of receiving oral sex from a porn actress during a traffic stop has been expanded to include more than 25 stops involving women, a prosecutor said.
The FBI and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation have been called in to assist Tennessee Highway Patrol investigators in the case of former Trooper James Randy Moss, according to Wilson County District Attorney General Tommy Thompson.
Investigators have identified more than 25 of Moss’s traffic stop videos that are “questionable” and want to contact the women involved to ask whether anything inappropriate occurred, Thompson said. He said he didn’t know how far back in Moss’ career the tapes in question go.
In some of the videos, a microphone may be muted or not picking up sound. In others, some of the activity in the traffic stop may have been off camera, said Thompson, who said he hasn’t seen the tapes himself.
“They reviewed the videos, and anything that was suspect or where an opportunity” may have occurred, “they are going back and checking each of those,” the prosecutor said. “They are just trying to do a good job.”
Moss was initially fired last month, and then allowed to resign, after being accused of receiving oral sex from porn actress Justis Ellen Richert, who Moss stopped for speeding in Wilson County.
Richert, 21, lives in Knoxville and goes by the screen name Barbie Cummings. She placed a narrative and an explicit video from the encounter on her Internet blog. The story of her allegations spread around the world last month via the World Wide Web, but her site has since been taken down.
At least one other previous case surfaced when the story broke last month. It involved Moss’ 2000 stop with a female truck driver, but an internal investigation at the time was inconclusive.
State Safety Commissioner Dave Mitchell said he wanted that case reviewed, as well as Moss’s entire career with the patrol. The trooper had been with the agency since 1997.
Patrol spokesman Mike Browning had few details on that review Tuesday, other than to say that the investigation had expanded to include “any and all suspicious” stops by Moss.
Moss’s attorney was unable to be reached for comment Tuesday.
The videos now under review involve some women who live outside Tennessee, Thompson said. He said the extensive review demonstrates the desire of the patrol to ferret out any other problems in Moss’ past.
“Anything where there was an opportunity in certain cases, they are just checking it out,” Thompson said. “They are just making sure there are not any victims out there.
Something like this, some people might not call in. Some people would, but some may think it’s easier just to go on.”
Thompson said no charges have been filed against Moss, although he expects a grand jury to hear testimony possibly as early as July.
