Embattled cop out of a job, license revoked
Actions come after Nevada sheriff says cop paid for sex, pills
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Full investigative report (2.7MB PDF)
▶ Video of incident at The Hub via YouTube
Staff writer
Embattled officer Eric Watts, whom a Nevada sheriff has accused of attempting to purchase painkillers and solicit sexual favors from a former inmate in 2021, no longer is employed by Peabody, and his provisional certification as a Kansas law enforcement officer has been revoked, a spokesman for Kansas Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training confirmed Friday.
“Because he separated from employment, we will revoke his license,” a CPOST spokesman said. “The separation reason is not a public record.... Peabody might tell you.”
Peabody officials did not return a call asking for comment. It’s unclear whether Watts resigned or was fired.
Revocation of his license will be reported to a national database of decertified officers, the spokesman said, but not every state updates the database.
“Hopefully, this will give the public some reassurance,” the spokesman said. “I am confident that if he were [listed by Nevada] we would have noticed that.”
The spokesman noted that revocation of Watts’ provisional license was not because of wrongdoing but an automatic action because he no longer was employed and had not yet been fully licensed.
Watts no longer being an officer comes after revelation of allegations against Watts were reported in the Wednesday issue of the Marion County Record.
“I don’t think bad cops should work in this profession,” Sheriff Bill Ferguson said in a Record interview for that story. “It kills me that an agency actually hired him.”
Watts also faces a police brutality lawsuit from a previous job in Elk County. He was Peabody’s sole officer after a series of firings and resignations.
Contacted by the Record Tuesday morning, Watts denied the allegations made by Ferguson.
Ferguson was undersheriff of Mineral County, Nevada, when Watts worked there from November, 2020, to May, 2021. Ferguson later became sheriff.
The Record obtained from him a copy of an official criminal investigation report written by Adam Fortier, a jail sergeant at the time.
The report, written after Watts resigned as a deputy with Mineral County, includes multiple witness statements and copies of text messages supporting those statements.
In an interview with the Record, Fortier confirmed that the report was genuine.
The Record provided copies to Peabody officials, the Marion County attorney, and Kansas police licensing authorities.
The report begins with an allegation by inmate Frances Sepulveda that Watts sexually harassed her.
“When I first came into jail,” she wrote in a witness statement, “deputy Watts was taking off my handcuffs and held my hand real quick and told me how good and gorgeous I looked.
“He had my phone waiting on the counter, and I was scrolling looking for contacts on my phone, and he interrupted me by saying that if he wasn’t a cop and I wasn’t an inmate he would ‘f--- the sh-- out of me.’”
Former inmate Jessica Libbee told Fortier she gave Watts oral sex twice in exchange for $60 each time.
Libbee shared text messages between her and Watts in which Watts appeared to be soliciting sexual favors from her.
In the messages, Watts referred to Libbee as a “criminal” and jokingly asked whether she was making money from the sheriff’s office by setting him up.
“You can come over for a servicer, and I can spot you some cash,” Watts wrote.
Libbee asked whether that was code.
Watts replied: “You can call it what you want.”
He also communicated about when his child would not be home so it would be safe to visit.
Later, Watts sent Libbee another message in response to Libbee asking for money.
“I’m sure you can find something to do to earn it,” Watts said.
During another interaction, Watts grew frustrated with Libbee, whom he had urged to establish a Snapchat account.
“You never snapped me the pic I was waiting for,” Watts wrote.
Libbee replied: “That’s going to cost you $20 LMAO. Maybe I should start an OnlyFans.”
Watts answered: “Will see what the quality of your work that you send is lol.”
Later, he wrote that it doesn’t “take long to take a shirt off [and] take two pics and send them. What are you, two years old?”
Libbee alleged in a signed statement that Watts asked her for “oxy” pills and had a sexual relationship with another inmate, Amanda White.
Sepulveda also told the investigator that Watts had had a sexual relationship with White, alleging that White and Watts had a sexual encounter in the jail’s kitchen.
Watts was not charged with any crimes during his time in Mineral County, nor were his actions reported to Nevada Police Officer Standards and Training.
Fortier told the Record he could not find sufficient evidence that White and Watts had a sexual relationship, nor that Watts sexually harassed Sepulveda.
“Besides her statement, I had no corroborating evidence of any of it, except for those text messages,” Fortier said. “They waited way too long to say anything. And at that point, I don’t think there was any audio recording in the jail.”
The messages between Watts and Libbee came after Libbee had been released from prison.
Prostitution is legal in Nevada.
“There’s a good possibility he met her as an inmate, but she was not an inmate at the time,” Fortier said.
Watts was placed on the state’s Brady/Giglio list, a database used to track untrustworthy cops, after he allegedly solicited help in completing a reciprocity exam that would have given him police certification in Nevada, according to Ferguson.
“He lied about asking another deputy to help him take the test,” Ferguson said.
Watts previously was certified in California. He never received certification in Nevada and has not been certified in Kansas.
Journalists cannot independently verify names on Brady/Giglio lists. The lists are confidential and maintained by county prosecutors.
A website that purports to track Brady-listed officers reports that Watts also is on the Brady list in California.
However, Brett Short, an officer at the Newman, California, police department, where Watts formerly worked, said he did not have a record of Watts being on the California list.
“I don’t see a letter in his file,” Short said. “I don’t believe he was ever on the Brady list here.”
Police agencies can view the lists while conducting background checks of an officer.
Although Mineral County did not report its suspicions about Watts to state licensing authorities, Ferguson said he threatened to cut off dispatches to an Indian reservation where Watts worked after leaving the sheriff’s office unless the reservation fired him.
Watts secured a job in Elk County, Kansas, in 2022.
He did not receive anything beyond provisional certification as a Kansas law enforcement officer.
Police are allowed to work for up to 12 months pending full certification.
Watts worked there for 10 months and, as previously reported by the Record, became the subject of a federal brutality suit in 2023.
He joined Peabody’s police force in September, 2024.
“We never received any background request from either,” Ferguson said of Watts’ Kansas employers.
California and Tennessee counties where Watts applied did request background checks, Ferguson said.
He said he informed those counties of Watts’ Brady status.
Watts had been Peabody’s lone officer since the resignation April 7 of Chief Phillip Crom, who hired Watts.
In his resignation, Crom cited stress caused by people trying “to make up lies and rumors about me, the mayor, and my officer.”
Michael Ervai, a YouTube activist from Lawrence, presented a summary of allegations about Watts at Monday night’s Peabody City Council meeting.
Mayor Catherine Weems and other council members did not respond.
Concerns about Watts’ behavior locally focused on his response to an incident Feb. 8 at The Hub youth center in Peabody.
Watts called for backup from three sheriff’s deputies after stopping a car for making what he said was an illegal U-turn.
He took a young woman into custody while her car was searched.
No charges were filed, but Hub officials and others questioned whether he overreacted.
Weems said she was told by a private citizen that a large number of youths had gathered in mob-like fashion around Watts.
Surveillance video obtained Sunday by the Record captured the incident and revealed that at most a handful of youths watched — mainly after deputies arrived — and seemed to remain passive nearly half a block away from Watts.