A former Pennsylvania State Trooper from Harrisburg has been charged in U.S. Middle DistrictCourt with obstructing justice for exchanging sexual favors for information on criminal investigations in local prostitution related activities.
An information filed by federal officials alleges that Kevin J. Coleman, 42, of Harrisburg, tipped off pimps and prostutitutes on the progress of an investigation into prostitution-related activites at the Gables Truck Stop in East Hanover Twp., Dauphin County.
After a two-week trial in U.S. Middle District Court last October, several members of a Toledo, Ohio, based prostitution ring were convicted of conspiracy to promote interstate prostitution between February 2001 and December 2005.
Federal prosecutors charged that the ring operated from diverse locations in Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, among others, starting in February of 2001.
State police troopers, including Coleman, working with special agents from the FBI, were able to tap the cell phones of several of the pimps.
Coleman, if convicted faces as much as 10 years in prison and a finie of up to $250,000.
