A former Columbus police vice officer was sentenced Thursday to 18 months in prison by a federal judge on charges he conspired to violate the civil rights of a man.
Prosecutors had asked for a longer sentence of 33 months in prison for Steven Rosser.
He was convicted in February of the charge by a jury in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio. He was accused of framing someone for drug possession and another for felonious assault, according to an indictment.
Another former officer, Whitney Lancaster, was found not guilty in the case.
The FBI began investigating the vice unit in 2018 after they arrested adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Both Rosser and Lancaster were involved in that arrest, which garnered national attention while former President Donald Trump was in office.
Rosser and Lancaster faced departmental charges for their involvement in Daniels’ arrest at the strip club Sirens. In July 2018, they arrested Daniels and two Sirens employees for violating Ohio’s “Community Defense Act,” which prohibited “nude or semi-nude” dancers from touching patrons.