Stephanie Ingersoll

USA TODAY NETWORK – TENNESSEE

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — A man accused of following a shopper at Hobby Lobby with a video recorder last week resigned from the Clarksville Police Department in January 2015 after a guest at his home accused him of masturbating in front of her and then his "sex toy" defense flopped, according to a disciplinary report obtained by The Leaf-Chronicle.

Anthony T. Murphy, 30, was charged March 8 with simple assault and tampering with evidence after a terrified woman told police he followed her through the store and Clarksville Police officers found a video that showed Murphy and the woman recorded on his phone as he followed her through the mirror aisle.

Man accused of filming customer was ex-cop

The Leaf-Chronicle obtained personnel files Monday that indicate Murphy resigned from Clarksville Police on Jan. 20, 2015, during an internal investigation brought about by a woman who had stayed at Murphy's home, sleeping in one of his children's rooms on Jan. 12, 2015.

The woman told police that she did not know Murphy before visiting his home with her boyfriend and that she and her boyfriend slept in different rooms.

She said she was asleep when Murphy entered the room where she was sleeping and shined a flashlight on the bed. Documents say she said she heard what sounded like him masturbating.

"(The complainant) stated that as Murphy began to lift the blanket she was sleeping under, she turned around and saw the shadow of his penis on the bedroom wall, and asked him what he was doing, to which he replied he was looking for a blanket and quickly turned around and left the room," the complaint summary states.

The woman said she did not tell anyone about the incident until she and her boyfriend were driving back to Minnesota the next day because she didn't want him alarmed.

On Jan. 15, 2015, a CPD captain talked to the woman's uncle, who said he and his niece had been contacted by Murphy that morning "and he had told them that he did not expose himself to (her) but what she saw and heard was a sex toy," the complaint states.

On Jan. 16, 2015, the captain met with Murphy and Murphy told the captain the woman had seen and heard a sex toy that he had purchased for his spouse.

On Jan. 18, 2015, Murphy left a voice mail on the captain's phone confessing that the woman had told the truth and that he had lied, the complaint states.

He resigned from the department two days later.

Clarksville Police Chief Al Ansley said that case has been closed.

"He resigned prior to the conclusion of the internal investigation; therefore the investigation administratively closed," Ansley said.

Man accused of recording stranger as she shopped

Reach Stephanie Ingersoll at 245-0267 and on Twitter @StephLeaf.