State Trooper Sent Arrested Woman's Nude Photos To His Phone After Confiscating Her Device

A former Minnesota State Trooper who reportedly sent nude photos from the mobile of a woman he arrested to his own phone after confiscating her device last year has been sentenced to two years of probation on Tuesday, Aug. 3.

In March 2020, Albert Kuehne, 37, of Dayton, Minnesota, reportedly responded to a car crash in Minneapolis, near Cedar Avenue and Interstate 94, and detained the driver, a 25-year-old woman, on suspicion of Driving While Impaired (DWI), according to Fox News.

Kuehne then reportedly led the victim to his squad car and ordered her to give him her phone. Later, while the victim was being treated by paramedics, Kuehne who was alone in his squad car, sent three intimate photos of the victim to himself from her phone and then reportedly deleted records of the messages from her device.

However, the victim's phone was synced to her Macbook. After she was released from the hospital, the victim's boyfriend noticed on the Macbook that nude photographs of his partner were sent from her phone to an unknown number, NBC News reported.

"Victim’s boyfriend contacted the unknown phone number and the person on the other end of the call eventually identified themselves as the defendant," the complaint states.

"Two of the photos show the victim's exposed breasts," the complaint stated. When the victim was interviewed as part of the investigation, she said that she did not give the defendant permission to access her phone.

Kuehne was originally charged with two felony counts of harassment that could've carried a possible five-year prison sentence. However, he pleaded guilty at the Hennepin County District Court in June to a lesser charge of nonconsensual dissemination of private sexual images and agreed to two years of probation, KSTP reported.

"I would like to apologize to the victim for my indiscretion," Kuehne said during his sentencing hearing held over Zoom. "I regret the incident and take full responsibility for my actions."

In May 2020, Kuehne was reportedly put on paid administrative leave and was eventually fired four months later by Minnesota State Patrol last October.

"He violated the tenets of the oath that he took as a police officer to protect and serve. He took advantage of my client when she was vulnerable and in distress to satisfy his own prurient interests," Mark Kallenbach, the victim's attorney, said in the court. The victim was not present at the hearing.