When Calvin Schaffer pinned on his police officer's badge on February 27, 2009, he wasn't planning on getting himself hauled into federal court for e-mailing nude pictures of himself to a woman he pulled over in a traffic stop. But that's exactly what happened, and Schaffer yesterday pleaded guilty in a Kansas court to a case that eventually involved even the FBI.

How did a local scandal become a federal issue? As The Topeka Capital-Journal puts it, "The e-mails crossed state lines and through several jurisdictions by traveling over the Internet through servers in California and Virginia." That was enough to trigger the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, and the feds charged Schaffer with wire fraud. The court has scheduled a sentencing hearing for November 16.

Server location: it matters

Back in February, Schaffer pulled a woman over on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. According to the federal indictment, he then "offered assistance in connection with his official duties to a person he had previously arrested to seek dismissal of her criminal charges in exchange for a sexual relationship."

Schaffer insists that the woman first sent him nude pictures of herself; she told investigators that she played along with his advances on the way to jail and later recorded conversations with Schaffer, which she turned over to the FBI.

However the situation progressed, Schaffer admits that he later sent similar photos (both nude and "partially nude") of himself back to the woman—using, believe it or not, "computer equipment belonging to the Goddard Police Department and the citizens of Goddard, Kansas." The coup de grace? He sent the e-mails when he was on duty. He also tried twice to have the local prosecutor dismiss the charges against the woman.

Had Schaffer's e-mails been routed through Kansas servers, the issue might have remained a local one, but the messages passed through servers on both coasts. Once that happened, federal investigators and prosecutors could get involved in the case—as they can in many cases in which the Internet is used.

Schaffer had originally pleaded not guilty to the charges, but he changed his plea yesterday as part of a deal to reduce his sentence.

Goddard, a town of just 3,300 with only nine police officers, isn't used to so much attention. As its police department website boasts, "residents enjoy a tranquil small town environment with a low crime rate. The majority of crime reported is property and financial related (i.e. theft, insufficient fund and forged checks, etc)."

The department's motto is PRIDE—Pride, Respect, Integrity, Duty, Ethics—but we doubt the department is feeling much of it at the moment.

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