The cruiser video that the Highway Patrol supervisor watched raised red flags. The sergeant saw the trooper flirt with two women in a car that he'd stopped for suspected drunken driving. Then he turned off his microphone. It was that September 2013 incident that led this month to charges against now-former Trooper Bryan D. Lee, who authorities say failed to charge women he'd pulled over in exchange for sexual favors. Lee, 30, of Lancaster, pleaded guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court in Columbus to four counts of violating the civil rights of four female motorists, as well as one count of engaging in cyberstalking.

The cruiser video that the Highway Patrol supervisor watched raised red flags.

The sergeant saw the trooper flirt with two women in a car that he�d stopped for suspected drunken driving. Then he turned off his microphone.

It was that September 2013 incident that led this month to charges against now-former Trooper Bryan D. Lee, who authorities say failed to charge women he�d pulled over, in exchange for sexual favors.

Lee, 30, of Lancaster, pleaded guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court in Columbus to four counts of violating the civil rights of four female motorists, as well as one count of engaging in cyberstalking.

He will be sentenced later and could get up to nine years in prison.

Lee isn�t new to being investigated.

He�s the same trooper who was accused five years ago of not ticketing two fellow law officers who were going more than 100 miles per hour on motorcycles. And he was once investigated for possibly sexually harassing a woman after she filed a complaint.

Lee was found to have coerced sex from women he stopped or arrested; had sex with at least one; photographed sexual encounters with his cellphone; and stalked some of the women on social media, according to U.S. Attorney Carter M. Stewart�s office.

The State Highway Patrol started proceedings to fire Lee in October 2013, shortly after administrators began investigating him. Instead of being fired, Lee resigned as a trooper on Nov. 4, 2013.

�Public trust is one of our first priorities, and individuals like Lee compromise that trust,� said Lt. Craig Cvetan, spokesman for the patrol. The patrol took the case to federal prosecutors because the incidents crossed jurisdictions.

The incidents, documents show, occurred between November 2010 and October 2013. Three of the women were victimized in the Licking County area while Lee was a trooper at the Granville post; the other incident occurred in Fairfield County while he worked out of the Lancaster post.

The charges were filed on Oct. 16 and unsealed yesterday. The women who were victimized by Lee couldn�t be reached.

The fact that Lee�s supervisor was looking at video from his cruiser camera wasn�t unusual. Patrol sergeants routinely review dash-cam video of troopers they supervise.

Investigators interviewed the two women who were in the car that was stopped in September 2013 in Lancaster, Cvetan said. Lee later admitted that he allowed the driver of that car to leave without being charged � though she showed signs of being drunk � but told the passenger to get into his cruiser so he could give her a ride home.

Lee pulled into an alley and parked, then took a picture of himself touching the woman�s bare breasts.

The patrol found �evidence of similar activity, where he photographed sexual acts,� at Lee�s phone, Cvetan said.

In a March 2012 incident, Lee stopped a woman for speeding. He then asked her to walk with him to his cruiser.

While she sat in the front seat, he asked her whether he could take a picture of her without her top on and she complied. Lee used his cellphone to take a picture of himself touching a bare breast.

Lee then talked the woman into driving to an abandoned gas station, where they had intercourse. Afterward, he tore up her speeding ticket.

Another incident that Lee admitted to was one that had previously been investigated. According to court documents, in the Nov. 19, 2010, incident, the woman was stopped by Lee after wrecking her car. Lee suspected her of being drunk and had handcuffed her behind her back. She said he instructed her to lean over the cruiser outside of camera view. He then fondled her breasts and rubbed his penis against her hands. Lee lied to patrol investigators when the complaint was originally filed and not pursued.

Then on Nov. 21, 2010, court papers state, Lee groped a woman in a similar manner. Lee found a bag of pills and drug paraphernalia in the woman�s car but did not charge her. He did take her to jail for an outstanding arrest warrant and cited her for speeding and driving with a suspended license.

Lee then contacted the woman on Facebook and demanded that she send naked pictures of herself.

Dispatch Reporter Kathy Lynn Gray contributed to this story.

jwoods@dispatch.com

@Woodsnight