The police chief in Seward has been charged with offering leniency to two women in exchange for sex, in February and in June of this year.
49-year-old Robert Isaac Baldwin Jr. resigned last week and has been charged with six misdemeanor offenses: obstruction of justice, four counts of official oppression, and a single count of hindering apprehension for failure to report a criminal violation for a person on probation.
The investigation began in September when one of the women contacted state police. Baldwin is accused of pulling over a New Florence woman for a traffic violation on February 19th and having her follow him to a remote location because he said there were too many people in the area. There, the woman claims he implied that he could make the ticket go away in exchange for sex. She declined, but said he texted her the next day and she felt pressured, so she complied with his advances because she felt she would lose her driver’s license.
After denying the accusation, police say Baldwin was confronted with a 911 transmission in which he mentioned the woman’s name and with text messages to her, so he told investigators that if they have proof, then he “guessed” he did it.
The second incident came to light during the investigation when state police were told by Saint Clair Township Police Chief Francis Plummer that Baldwin had told him about a woman who was “badmouthing” police and said he may have mistakenly sent her an inappropriate text. The woman said in a police interview that she turned down Baldwin’s suggestion that she could “work off” drug paraphernalia charges.
Baldwin is due before District Judge Denise Thiel in Ligonier for a preliminary hearing on December 11th.
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