NEW ORLEANS --
The New Orleans Police Department terminated officers Beau Gast and Thomas McMasters on Friday after an administrative investigation by the department’s Public Integrity Bureau.
NOPD said the investigation revealed that both men falsified records and knowingly arrested two women on prostitution charges without a warrant.
In disciplinary hearings in early March, Gast and McMasters admitted that they didn't check to see if either of the women had a prior conviction of prostitution solicitation within the previous year, NOPD records said.
That check is required by law to arrest anyone on prostitution loitering charges. Both men said they were aware of the law, but they did not abide by it.
The charges considered against both men include poor moral conduct relative to false imprisonment, neglect of duty, failing to take appropriate and necessary police action and creating false and inaccurate reports.
McMasters had been with the force for 13 years and Gast became an officer in 2007, NOPD said.
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