Former Kansas cop loses license after having sex with woman he interviewed in case

Eduardo Castillo
·2 min read
3

A former Kansas police officer was stripped of his law enforcement certification after having sexual relations with a woman he met while working on her case.

Russell McKnight was employed by the St. George Police Department from March 30, 2023 to December 26, 2023, a summary order of revocation from the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training said.

He held the rank of police officer, according to a city council document from August 2023. That same month, he graduated from the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center.

A phone number associated with McKnight did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

What the summary order says

The summary order gave this account:

McKnight resigned from the SGPD in December 2023 due to family issues related to sexual contact with a woman. The department learned that the woman was a victim in a case McKnight was working on before he resigned.

The SGPD started an investigation and learned that the woman called the department on Dec. 21, 2023 to report her husband calling her and violating a protection order.

McKnight went to the woman’s house to take a report. She talked to McKnight again the next day about her case.

The woman said that McKnight had told her that he would come back to her house after he got off work the evening of Dec. 22. He arrived at the woman’s house at 10:30 p.m.

After talking for a while, McKnight dared the woman to kiss him to where the two started having sex.

The woman made a follow-up report on Dec. 23 regarding more contact with her husband. McKnight documented the information.

In a meeting with the KS-CPOST commission, McKnight said he had given the woman his personal cell phone number when he met her on Dec. 21.

McKnight admitted he knew the woman, but did not meet her until Dec. 21. He also admitted to meeting her again on Dec. 22, when he went to her house after work and had sex.

Saint George is a city of just over 1,000 in Pottawatomie County and is just under a two-and-half-hour drive northeast of Wichita.