Police documents: Cincinnati officer had sex on duty with prostitutes found in police database

A Cincinnati police officer resigned in 2020 after investigators said he had sex with prostitutes while working and used a law enforcement database to query women's telephone numbers.

Alexander Saulsbury, 29, pleaded guilty to the unauthorized use of a computer, a felony, punishable by up to a year in prison, but as part of a plea agreement he was sentenced to one year of probation, according to court documents.

The agreement also stated Saulsbury would resign from the department and surrender his state peace officer certification.

The charges and resignation only came to light this week after a WCPO report stemming from broader public records requests. At the time of Saulsbury's resignation, the Cincinnati Police Department did not issue any press releases regarding the accusations.

Cincinnati police union president Dan Hils said he believes the department should have been the agency to notify the public about this disappointing development.

"Police officers are held to a high standard because of the trust the community place in them. Whenever an officer violates that trust and commits a felony, they deserve to be held accountable under the law and they don't deserve to wear the badge," Hils said.

In regards to the sentence, Hils said plea deals are struck between judges, prosecutors and lawyers saying that investigators often don't get to be part of that discussion.

The Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office released a statement Monday regarding the situation:

"In consultation with the Cincinnati Police Department, it was clear that the priority should be to ensure this individual was never able to be a police officer again. That goal was accomplished because of this deal."

Report says the women faced eviction and open warrants

It was an FBI tip that launched an internal investigation into Saulsbury's behavior, according to the investigation report. Agents reported to the department that a woman said she was paid to perform sex acts on a uniformed officer while that officer was on duty.

According to the report, she got a text message in early 2017 from a person who wanted to meet. When she arrived at the location, she left because saw a police car. She texted and told the person she couldn't meet, but the man texted back and said the police car was gone now.

She went back, but still saw the car, which approached her and the officer inside offered her a ride.

Investigators said this officer was Saulsbury.

"He also hinted he wanted to engage her services," the report says, but the woman was nervous she would be arrested. "Officer Saulsbury told her not to worry because he regularly paid for prostitutes for sex."

According to the woman, that first night, she gave Saulsbury her number, but he only drove her home.

The woman said that May, she and her boyfriend were evicted and he was one of the officers who responded to escort them off the property. She said Saulsbury spoke to the landlord, her boyfriend and another police officer and eventually sent them all away.

"Officer Saulsbury told [the woman] he felt sorry for her because she was sleeping in a hallway and ... offered to pay [her] $60 if she performed oral sex on him," the report says.

She agreed. The report says he removed his gun belt before the act, paid her afterward and left.

Saulsbury continued to contact her via text occasionally, investigators said, and they had another encounter before she had no further contact with him.

According to a second woman cited in the report, Saulsbury saw her leaving a place where she had just had sex with a man for money. That day, he spoke to her from his police cruiser. A few weeks later, she saw him again at a cellphone store and he asked her if he knew her and said he had seen her with a man before.

Then in the Fall of 2018, he pulled up beside her in his cruiser and told her he knew she had open warrants. He directed her to get in the backseat.

The woman said she didn't know what was happening because Saulsbury did not handcuff her.

"As Officer Saulsbury drove, he told [the woman] where she attended high school and they had a mutual friend," the report states. "[The woman] believe the only way Officer Saulsbury knew that information was through her Facebook social media account."

The report says Saulsbury drove her to a park, where he got out of the car, opened the rear door and unzipped his pants. The woman said he told her not to be scared because he was not going to set her up. She said she touched him, and after the encounter, she left.

During a later encounter, the woman said Saulsbury paid her for oral sex.

Report says Saulsbury looked up 13 women in police database

Saulsbury's personnel file states he joined the Cincinnati Police force in 2016. According to the women interviewed by investigators, their encounters with Saulsbury took place in 2017 and 2018.

During the course of the investigation, officers said they found that Saulsbury used the Regional Crime Information Center database to find phone numbers for about 13 women "affiliated with various escort services."

These queries began in 2018, according to the report, and continued until January 2020.

Saulsbury was arrested in June 2020 and pleaded guilty in October.

While the internal investigation was assigned to an officer in December 2019, it was not fully approved and completed until Chief Eliot Isaac signed off on it in January 2021, months after Saulsbury was convicted.

The Cincinnati Police spokeswoman, Emily Szink, told The Enquirer Monday that interim Chief Teresa Theetge would not be commenting on a two year old investigation. Theetge was among the three Cincinnati police leaders who approved the final report. She initialed the document in December 2020.

Saulsbury's lawyer declined to comment as well saying, in part, the case took place too long ago.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Officer had sex on duty with prostitutes found in police database