Police in hot soup for seducing 2,300 women using government resources

A police sergeant in Cleveland was charged this week with using government property and a police database to find information about two women, and to send social media messages to about 2,300 women over the course of eight months.

The charges against the sergeant, Michael Rybarczyk, 58, stemmed from an earlier investigation in which he was charged in February with soliciting prostitution.

He had been placed on restricted duty, doing work that did not put him in direct contact with the public.

On Monday, after the new charges were brought against him, he was suspended without pay.

The new charges against Sergeant Rybarczyk, who has been with the Cleveland Division of Police for nearly three decades, included two counts that allege that he used his access to a police database to find personal information about, and photographs of, two women.

A third count alleges that he “used a social media platform to send non-work related, written messages to approximately 2,300 females” from June 2018 through January, and that he did so on a computer owned by the city.

At least some of the messages were sent while Sergeant Rybarczyk was on duty, the authorities contend, saying that the city suffered a “loss of services” worth $1,000.

The Division of Police began an internal affairs investigation of Sergeant Rybarczyk in January, which culminated in 11 misdemeanor counts of soliciting prostitution being brought against him in February in Cleveland Municipal Court, according to a statement from the police.

Sergeant Rybarczyk has pleaded not guilty to those charges.

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