Ex-Kansas Police Officer Pleads Guilty to Sexually Assaulting at Least 10 Females

A former Kansas police officer pleaded guilty this week to sexually assaulting at least 10 females — including a 15-year-old girl — under the guise of questioning them about having drugs, prosecutors said.

The former officer, Todd W. Allen, of Hutchinson, Kan., pleaded guilty in Reno County District Court on Monday to 12 felony sex charges and five breach of privacy charges in connection with the attacks, which stretched over several years while he worked for the Hutchinson Police Department.

Mr. Allen could face up to 27 ½ years in prison when he is sentenced on May 22, according to Thomas R. Stanton, the Reno County district attorney. Prosecutors are recommending that he serve at least 23 ½ years.

Mr. Allen is currently free on a $250,000 bond.

Chrystal Krier, who is listed in court records as his lawyer, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

Mr. Allen, who worked for the Hutchinson Police Department for more than 25 years and left in January 2019, was arrested in August and initially faced more than 20 charges, including five counts of rape and two counts of kidnapping. The authorities said at the time of his arrest that most of the crimes took place from 2012 to 2018. At least 17 open cases that the Hutchinson Police Department had been investigating were cleared with his arrest.

Mr. Allen targeted females, many of whom, according to court records, were in cars with a boyfriend, friend or sibling. He would approach the cars, tap on a window, and, in some cases, shine a flashlight inside the vehicle.

Mr. Allen, who was off-duty at the time, would then ask the victim to step out of the car and often identity himself as “park security,” said prosecutors, adding that he would assault the victims while questioning them about drugs. During the assaults, Mr. Allen would cover his face with a black ski mask and then flee after the victims yelled for help, according to court records.

It was numerous complaints about prowling and window peeping that eventually led to Mr. Allen’s arrest.

According to court documents, he was caught on camera peering over a fence at a group of females who were having a party on June 19, 2022. When Mr. Allen spotted the camera, he shined a flashlight at it and then ran away. The authorities were then able to use the description and video to stop him at an intersection in Hutchinson while he was riding his bike, records show.

About two months later, Mr. Allen voluntarily met with detectives and admitted that he had looked over the fence at the women, and later admitted to being responsible for the sexual assaults that had occurred earlier, according to court records.

The authorities had discovered that Mr. Allen, while still a police officer, had searched the Police Department’s database multiple times to view details about the sexual assaults.

“Eventually,” according to court records, “the defendant admitted that he was suspect in the cases he had reviewed, and that he was the park prowler posing as a park security officer or police officer that the department had been searching for in these cases.”

Jeff Hooper, the former Hutchinson Police Department chief, said at the time of Mr. Allen’s arrest that about three weeks after Mr. Hooper joined the force in 2018, there was a sexual assault at one of the city’s parks. It was believed that it was related to a series of other crimes that had been committed in the area since 2012.

The department had never publicly mentioned the assaults, Mr. Hooper said, so he quickly held a news conference on Nov. 6, 2018, to “alert the public to potential dangers and precautions they could take.” After that, the sexual assaults stopped and Mr. Allen, a patrol officer, resigned from the police force.

After leaving the Police Department in January 2019, prosecutors said, Mr. Allen worked as a security officer at Hutchinson Regional Medical Center, until his arrest.

Hutchinson Regional Medical Center and the Hutchinson Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.