Arizona trooper coerced women into ‘positions of desperation and fear’

PHOENIX – The former Arizona state trooper arrested Tuesday for allegedly extorting sexual favors from women he pulled over had methods of placing victims “in positions of desperation and fear,” according to court documents released Wednesday.

Tremaine Anthony Jackson, 43, was booked on 61 charges, including multiple counts of kidnapping and sexual abuse, related to eight incidents from Oct. 2018 to March 2019.

The booking document (WARNING: explicit content) includes a 26-page probable cause statement that shows a pattern of how Jackson allegedly preyed on women he found attractive.

All but one of the incidents occurred late at night or early in the morning, between 11:45 p.m. and 4:14 a.m.

“Jackson created false pretenses and allegations of violations of Arizona Revised Statutes as a foundation for his criminal and predatory acts,” the probable cause statement says.

He repeatedly prolonged traffic stops for longer-than-normal time periods while trying to coerce women into dating him or performing sexual favors before he’d let them go, the statement says. The victims went along with his demands in some cases under the threat of being arrested.

He would talk about their appearance and use graphic sexual language. He repeatedly used similar lines of questioning, asking the women what they would be willing to do for him, the statement says.

“During the traffic stops, Jackson behaved unprofessionally, exhibited specific body language, used nonverbal and verbal communication cues, and used similar, specific terminology when placing the female victims in positions of desperation and fear,” the statement says.

Investigators found that Jackson stopped more women than men between Jan. 1, 2018, and June 11, 2019, while his colleagues on average stopped twice as many men as women.

The charges against Jackson include forgery, fraudulent schemes and tampering with a public record because he’s accused of falsifying times, locations and violations in traffic stop reports and submitting false overtime claims.

Jackson had been working for the Arizona Department of Public Safety for about 13 years when he was arrested and fired. He was a motorcycle trooper tasked with metro Phoenix traffic enforcement in his most recent assignment.

He’d been on leave since June 11, when a sexual abuse complaint was lodged.

During a press conference Tuesday, DPS Director Col. Frank Milstead said, “We were horrified; we were absolutely horrified,” about the accusations against Jackson.

Investigators are working to find more women Jackson may have victimized.

Anybody with information about crimes he may have committed was asked to contact DPS at 602-223-2389 or submit information online.

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