Albany police officer resigns after sexually explicit images surface online

ALBANY — An Albany Police officer has resigned after images of him performing sexual acts were discovered on the cell phone of a student at Dougherty High School.

An internal investigation by the police department determined the images had been independently downloaded from a website and were not transmitted to the student by the police officer.

The Albany Herald through an Open Records request obtained the findings of an Albany Police Department investigation that resulted in the resignation of Robert Lee Ausby, who had served with the department since June 2011. The APD’s Internal Affairs investigation revealed that two explicit digital images of Ausby, including one in which he was performing oral sex on a male, had been found on the phone of a student at the high school.

“He (Ausby) did not break any laws. He did not send the images directly to any children, but he used bad judgment in posting the videos online,” Albany City Attorney Nathan Davis said.

A teacher confiscated the student’s phone and contacted the Dougherty County School System Police Department, who, after viewing the cell phone images, contacted APD. DCSS officials stressed that none of the images were sent directly to any student, but were screen captures taken from videos that has been uploaded to social media sites Vine and KIK.

After APD officials viewed the images, the department launched an Internal Affairs investigation into “improper conduct” by Ausby on April 10.

On April 14, APD Internal Affairs interviewed Ausby. According to the APD report, Ausby admitted posting the video to Vine in February. Ausby also confirmed that the two images that were discovered were of him.

The report added: “Officer Ausby said he is embarrassed that children came in contact with the photos and wanted to make it perfectly clear that he never sent any of those obscene videos to any children. Furthermore, Officer Ausby said he is embarrassed because of his occupation and the people that depend on him to do the right thing. Officer Ausby said he had no idea that by him using the Vine account to post the videos that they would spread through social media.”

While Ausby had worked with band students at Dougherty High School in the past, there were no allegations of misconduct with any students in the report. An APD officer interviewed during the internal investigation said DHS faculty had stated Ausby would not be invited back to the school to work with students.

The report said that Ausby did not violate any criminal statutes, but used poor judgment in posting the videos online, violating department policies in three areas. The investigation concluded that Ausby, who had no other disciplinary record in the two years before the incident, was found to have violated APD policies covering Social Media and Networking; Willful Violation of Departmental Procedures, and Improper Conduct.

Aggravating factors, the report stated, were that Ausby was aware of the APD social media policy, and that his off-duty conduct resulted in “members of the public, students, and school faculty” viewing “obscene and inappropriate photographs of him.”

In his resignation letter to Capt. Angel Bradford, Ausby wrote, “It is with much sadness, but with an expected finish to a long process, that I must inform you that I, Ptl. Robert Ausby, am resigning from my position with the City of Albany as a sworn police officer with the Albany Police Department.”

Ausby’s resignation was accepted on April 17.