A former Hutchinson Police officer made his first appearance in court Thursday.
51 year old Todd Allen was formally charged with rape, kidnapping, aggravated indecent liberties with a child, sexual battery and several more.
Hutchinson police chief Jeff Hooper said Wednesday that Allen was arrested in connection with a series of sexual assaults and other crimes that occurred between 2012 and 2018.
Hooper held a press conference in 2018 to talk about the assaults and safety precautions that residents could take. The assaults stopped soon after that. There have been more recent cases involving prowlers and other incidents.
The chief said the cases were never placed into a “cold case status,” and investigators continued to look for new information and leads. He said the special operations bureau used community engagement to get more information after the prowler calls and more recent cases, and a suspect was detained after one of the prowler calls. That led to more investigations that connected the prowler calls to the earlier sexual assault cases.
Information was presented to the Reno County District Attorney’s Office and a warrant was issued. Officers took Allen into custody on Wednesday.
Allen was an officer during the time that the sexual assaults were reported. Allen later resigned from the police department.
Hooper said he is appalled and disgusted that a suspect in these types of crimes ever wore the uniform and badge of a Hutchinson police officer, but he is proud of the work that the department has done on these cases over the past decade. Hooper said the arrest has cleared 17 cases.
