RICHMOND — A Richmond police officer who once worked as a
school resource officer at Chariho High School has been arrested by the Rhode
Island State Police on charges of setting up a system whereby people who tried
to find the town’s police chief on the Internet were rerouted to a website
featuring gay sex.
Maj. Todd E. Catlow, detective commander of the state
police, said the arrest of Steven Gravier, 41, a seven-year veteran of the
department, came Thursday at the end of a seven-month joint investigation by
the state police Computer Crimes Unit, the U.S. Attorney, and the U.S. Postal
Inspection Service.
The probe began in Janunary when Richmond police Chief
Elwood M. Johnson reported he had received a warning from an anonymous tipster
the month before that Gravier had purchased two Internet domain names that were
variations of Johnson’s name — www.elwoodjohnson.com and
www.elwoodjohnsonjr.com — which, when accessed, would redirect the user to a
website filled with images and links to sexually explicit videos showing men
having sex.
Johnson told investigators he was so shocked at what he saw
that he made a video with his iPhone of what happened when users tried navigate
to his name. He gave the video to the state police.
However, when investigators started their probe they found
something different from when the chief recorded his video. Instead of being
rerouted to sexually explicit material, users trying to find the chief on the
Internet were instead directed to a non-explicit website for a M.A. Excavation
Inc. a firm specializing in cellars, drains and land clearing and other construction
projects.
Nonetheless, Catlow said, the investigation showed that the
domain names elwoodjohnson.com, elwoodjohnsonjr.com and ma-excavation.com all
had been purchased by Gravier, the first two from GoDaddy.com, and that using
misleading domain names was a federal crime.
After Gravier’s arrest at 9 a.m Thursday on a federal
warrant, he was taken to state police barracks at Lincoln Woods and then to
federal District Court in Providence, where he was released by U.S. Magistrate
Lincoln Almond on $10,000 unsecured bond. The charge, of using misleading
domain names on the Internet, carries a federal penalty of up to two years in
prison, a monetary fine, or both.
Johnson said Friday that because of the Law Enforcement
Officer’s Bill of Rights he would refrain from further comment about Gravier’s
case, but said his alleged actions were an isolated incident that should not
reflect on other members of the department. He said Gravier has been suspended
without pay and benefits.
School officials for the Chariho School District could not
be reached Friday about Gravier’s earlier work as at the high school as a
school resource officer.