Trooper fired after porn star's allegations

Trooper fired after porn star's allegations
THP says it will 'aggressively pursue' charge that officer threw away pills he found in woman's car

When porn actress Justis Richert takes her speeding ticket to court, the trooper who wrote it won’t be there.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol fired Trooper James Randy Moss on Thursday, two weeks after he came under scrutiny for Richert’s claim that she gave him oral sex during a traffic stop near Lebanon in Middle Tennessee.

"I feel bad for him," said Richert, whose professional name is Barbie Cummings. "That’s his job, and now he’s facing criminal charges. But at least he got (oral sex) out of it."

Richert, 21, lives in Knoxville and makes a living appearing in adult films and on Web sites. She said Moss, a married man and 10-year veteran of the THP, stopped her pink car May 7 as she drove home from visiting an aunt.

He found painkillers in her car but tossed them into the bushes after learning about her job, Richert said. The traffic stop turned into a tryst, complete with a visit to her Web site from his state-issued laptop, oral sex and photos and video shot by the trooper, she said.

"I didn’t think it was a good decision by him," Richert said. "But I thought he knew something I didn’t."

He still wrote her a ticket — for driving 92 mph in a 70 mph zone and driving without registration or proof of insurance.

Investigators met with Wilson County prosecutors earlier this week and plan to charge Moss with destroying evidence, THP spokesman Mike Browning said.

"We’ll be aggressively pursuing a charge that he destroyed narcotics," Browning said. "There could be other charges."

Richert, who keeps a blog about her work and personal life, wrote about the traffic stop the day it happened. Moss e-mailed her the photos and video of their encounter and told her he’d be telling his friends to check out the blog, she said.

"I kept my mouth shut," Richert said. "If you look on my blog, everything’s anonymous. I didn’t want anybody in trouble."

A THP employee filed an anonymous complaint against Moss the next day. That complaint led investigators to Richert’s blog and to her speeding ticket, Browning said.

The agency suspended Moss with pay on May 10, three days after the traffic stop. Investigators have talked to Richert, who turned over the photos and video, and reviewed the video from Moss’s in-cruiser camera, Browning said.

"What was in the video was disturbing," he said.

Now questions have surfaced about two other traffic stops by Moss, Browning said. The first happened in March 2000 when a woman trucker said he asked her to flash him during a traffic stop.

"He denied the allegation, and there wasn’t enough evidence to substantiate it," Browning said.

Since then another woman has come forward with a complaint about a traffic stop by Moss in 2005. Officials won’t give details about that complaint but said it also involves "serious misconduct."

Moss’s firing won’t take effect immediately. He has the right to appeal and can remain on leave until officials hear an appeal.

The story has made international headlines, and Richert said she’s enjoyed the attention it’s brought her.

She said she’s gotten hundreds of e-mails from fans as far away as Pakistan since the story broke. Her blog was taken down temporarily and moved after the site netted 205,000 hits earlier this week, she said.

A video interview on knoxnews.com drew more than 20,000 viewers. The Associated Press ranked the interview as its most-viewed online national news video on Tuesday, and it remains among the organization’s top 10 for the week.

Calls and e-mails from national television crews have poured in since then.

"I wasn’t expecting it to be this big a deal," Richert said.

She’ll appear in court in Wilson County with her speeding ticket June 29.