STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. — A Gwinnett County Police officer was arrested after being accused of taking his estranged wife’s cell phone and posting a sexually-explicit video on her Facebook page.
Zachary Wilkerson, 35, was arrested on Sunday on charges stemming from a weekend domestic dispute, Gwinnett County Police.
According to officials, police were alerted to the dispute involving Wilkerson, his estranged wife and at least two other people.
A woman contacted police she said she received disturbing text messages from Wilkerson on her best friend’s phone Saturday night.
According to officials, the friend also claimed that Wilkerson had been stalking his estranged wife and her boyfriend while he was on-duty as a police officer. The friend said that Wilkerson’s estranged wife had forwarded text messages from Wilkerson in which the police officer mentioned various equipment violations on her boyfriend’s vehicle, and threatened to impound the vehicle.
Police made contact with the estranged wife, who them about a dispute that had occurred on Saturday. She said that she was hanging out with a friend when Wilkerson showed up. While there, she said Wilkerson took her phone and walked away with it. The wife said that Wilkerson grabbed her by her throat and pushed her after she asked him to return it. A short time later, Wilkerson allegedly pulled out a personal firearm. Other people at the house attempted to calm Wilkerson down as he yelled obscenities. Wilkerson then left the party with his wife’s phone, police said.
Later that night, a sexually-explicit video was uploaded to the wife’s Facebook page.
Police met with Wilkerson on August 7 and were able to retrieve his wife’s phone. He was arrested and transported to the Gwinnett County Detention Center and charged with three counts of simple assault, theft by taking, battery, transmission of video and depicting nudity or sexually explicit conduct of an adult.
Gwinnett County Police confirmed that Wilkerson resigned from the Gwinnett County Police Department in lieu of termination.
Wilkerson was hired on June 22, 2015, and began operating as a street officer on April 23, police said. The Gwinnett County Police Department issued the following statement regarding the arrest and ensuing resignation of Wilkerson;
“We are fortunate that this type of behavior was realized very early in his brief career. We find these allegations very disturbing and unbecoming of any of our core values and ethical standards. We do not tolerate any form of misconduct or criminal conduct by any police officer from this department. In this situation, Wilkerson represented everything that police do not stand for and we are fortunate that he is no longer an employee of this agency.”