By Robert Moran
The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia police sergeant was suspended with intent to dismiss for failing to comply with a federal magistrate’s order in an unspecified investigation and search of his home, a department spokesman said Wednesday.
Sgt. Francis Rawls, 36, a 17-year veteran of the force who was assigned to the 16th District in West Philadelphia, was ordered to produce unencrypted hard drives as part of an investigation and he failed to do so, said a police spokesman, Lt. John Stanford. The nature of the investigation was not revealed.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas J. Rueter ordered Rawls on Aug. 27 to provide authorities with unencrypted access to an Apple Mac Pro, an Apple Mini Mac, an iPhone 6 Plus, and a Western Digital external hard drive, according to court records.
The computer equipment, which was encrypted, had been seized when a search warrant was executed at Rawls’ home, Stanford said.
Rawls was found in contempt of court at a Sept. 30 hearing and was immediately taken into custody by U.S. Marshals, Stanford said.
Prison records show that Rawls was still at the Federal Detection Center in Philadelphia as of Wednesday night.
An Internal Affairs investigation found that Rawls was in violation of department police, and Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey on Tuesday initiated the process to fire Rawls.
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