Officer resigns amid abuse allegations

A probation officer charged with using his position to molest women, resigned his position Monday.

Aaron Lewis, 35, walked into City Hall and tendered a letter of resignation to the Human Resources Department. He also turned in his gear, said Carson City Alternative Sentencing Chief Rory Planeta.

Lewis had been on paid administrative leave since September when a female probationer, Melissa Mulder, 20, reported Lewis allegedly forced her to expose her genitalia. Following a civil lawsuit filed by Mulder, an Attorney General's criminal investigation allegedly uncovered six other women who claimed similar abuses of power on Lewis' behalf.

Lewis is charged with eight felony counts of misconduct of a public officer, nine gross misdemeanor counts of oppression under color of office, seven gross misdemeanor counts of open and gross lewdness and one felony count of coercion using physical force. A preliminary hearing is set for June.

The complaint alleges that Lewis, an officer with the Carson City Department of Alternative Sentencing, which monitors people out on bail and on city probation, used threats of arrest to force the women to disrobe, touched one woman's genitals while touching himself, and subjected the women to inspections of their genitals and breasts under the ruse that he was looking for drugs or needle marks.

Lewis was hired to work at the Department of Alternative Sentencing in April 2009. Prior to that he worked in the Nevada Department of Corrections and as a deputy with the Lyon County Sheriff's Department from which he was fired. Lewis unsuccessful in a wrongful termination lawsuit filed against Lyon County in 2001.