by Kaden Gicker

A former police officer in Stockton, California, was arrested on Nov. 9, 2022, suspected of committed a number of sex crimes. The Record and The Stockton Record reported that former Sergeant Nicholas Bloed was taken into custody and booked into the San Joaquin County Jail in the early afternoon and placed on a bail of $4.16 million. The next day, he was charged with over a dozen offenses related to alleged sexual abuse, including unauthorized use of a computer, taking bribes, assault, sodomy, forced copulation, and rape. Bloed then appeared in court for the first time on Nov. 14, 2022.

Bloed had already been ejected from the department, quitting on Oct. 13, 2022, before he could be fired. The move came five months after two anonymous women, the first out of more than five, accused Bloed of sexual misconduct in formal complaints. The alleged misconduct included incidents of repeated harassment, including during traffic stops. One of the women even alleged that Bloed’s harassment of her lasted for years. During the first court hearing, San Joaquin District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar said that the former officer “was looking for particularly vulnerable people.” Bloed’s attorney claimed that the interactions with the victims, which allegedly took place while he was on duty, were consensual.

The attorney for the women, Dan Gilleon, indicated that one of his clients had been cooperating with members of law enforcement with their investigation. He claimed that that cooperation had resulted in the uncovering of incriminating sexual messages between the alleged victim and Bloed. The former officer joined the department in 2008 and had once been named employee of the month in 2014, recognized for his role training new officers at the time. But the accusations leveled against him from the three women were enough to prompt the Stockton Police Officer’s Association to issue a rebuke. It released a statement saying, “if proven true, [the allegations] are abhorrent and reprehensible.”

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