Former D.C. Police Officer Convicted of Selling Information About Crash Victims

A former patrol officer in Washington, D.C., was convicted on Thursday in a bribery scheme in which he sold private information about hundreds of traffic crash victims in exchange for payments that totaled more than $15,000, federal prosecutors said.

A federal jury found the former officer, Vincent Forrest, 35, guilty of conspiracy, bribery and making false statements, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington.

In 2019, Mr. Forrest, who worked for the Metropolitan Police Department’s Seventh District station, used his status as an officer to obtain contact information for victims of traffic crashes and sent that information to a lawyer, Raquel DePaula, 43, of Beltsville, Md., prosecutors said.

Ms. DePaula, who owned RD Legal Solutions, acted as a runner or middleman, using that personal information to connect people involved in vehicle accidents to lawyers seeking clients in exchange for referral fees, court records show.

Mr. Forrest will be sentenced on June 7. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum possible sentence of five years in prison. His lawyer, Barry Coburn, said on Friday that “we are disappointed in the outcome, but we respect the jury’s verdict.”

Ms. DePaula pleaded guilty in October 2021 to one count of bribery of a public official and will be sentenced on March 15. Calls placed to numbers listed as belonging to her were not immediately returned on Friday, and her lawyer did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment.

The U.S. attorney’s office said in a news release that Mr. Forrest was paid between $600 and $1,300 per week in exchange for contact information about crash victims.

In April 2019, Mr. Forrest connected with Ms. DePaula and began sharing victims’ contact information with her through WhatsApp, an encrypted communications app, prosecutors said.

They would meet at various locations across D.C. and in Maryland so that Mr. Forrest could receive cash bribes from Ms. DePaula, prosecutors said.

Some of their exchanges on WhatsApp were included in court records.

In one exchange from April 25, 2019, Mr. Forrest asked Ms. DePaula if she would be “picking the spot” to meet. Less than four hours later, Mr. Forrest sent her a WhatsApp message containing contact information for about 21 victims from the Police Department’s traffic crash reports, according to court records.

On May 10, Ms. DePaula asked Mr. Forrest “to begin searching for victim contact information for all of M.P.D.’s seven police districts,” court records said. Mr. Forrest agreed.

“I’m thinking we should do all seven districts,” Ms. DePaula said in a message.

“Doesn’t matter to me,” Mr. Forrest replied. “I’ll give you whatever is there.”

The next day, he sent her contact information for about 37 victims, prosecutors said.

Mr. Forrest also appeared to act stealthily as he obtained the information from reports. For example, on Aug. 16, 2019, Mr. Forrest explained to Ms. DePaula that he had not given her the contacts at the expected time because the watch commander at the station had been “walking around talking to us, so I ain’t trying to be hot with it.”

Mr. Forrest told Ms. DePaula that the commander had asked him why he was at the station on his day off.

“I told him I had to catch up on some other paperwork lol,” Mr. Forrest said, according to court records.

Later that day, he sent the contact information for 22 crash victims, prosecutors said.

F.B.I. agents interviewed Mr. Forrest on Aug. 19, 2020. In that interview, Mr. Forrest falsely told agents that he had not shared victims’ contact information from crash reports with a third party, prosecutors said.

He was arrested in 2021. The Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement that Mr. Forrest was fired the year after.

The scheme also involved five other people, prosecutors said, including a former officer, Walter Lee; former department employees, Kendra Coles and Aaron Willis; and two runners, Marvin Parker and Michelle Cage. All have pleaded guilty to related charges, prosecutors said.