Cop's texts to 17-yr-old girl released

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Text messages an Albuquerque cop was texting to a 17-year-old girl after he pulled her over have been released and the racy messages got him suspended.

It is clear the 30-year-old cop is hitting on the teen, but the chief says the messages were not inappropriate enough to cost him his job.

What the heck was Albuquerque cop Frank Tillman thinking, sending texts to a 17-year-old girl he gave a ticket to?

The city says the two exchanged numbers during the June traffic stop. Records show the married cop sent the first message, saying “hey”.

Later that night he asks if she's still with her boyfriend, tells her he thinks she's beautiful and then says he wants to kiss her.

The girl goes on to tell him she may be pregnant. The next day Tillman responds saying, he thinks her being “preggo is hot and it’s a turn on”.

The city says the two never saw each other after that traffic stop and only texted for a few days but in one of Tillman’s texts he says 'the girl looked very good today.'

The city says they found out about the text messages because the mother of a friend of the teenager came forward. The city says immediately it knew this was inappropriate.

The city says Tillman was immediately put on desk duty after the texts came to light. Internal affairs and a deputy chief recommended he be fired but instead police Chief Ray Schultz demoted him, put him on patrol and suspended him for three weeks.

The city says they took Tillman's 7-year record on the force into account.

He's been given awards for saving residents from a fire and responding to the shooting spree at Emcore in 2010.

The city says it wasn't the accolades, it was his clean record on the job that contributed to the chief keeping Tillman.

KRQE News 13 wanted to ask the chief how putting Tillman on patrol would keep him from hitting on any other teenage girls. The chief and all his deputy chiefs are out of town so no one could answer that. The city says it released the texts so the public would know exactly what they said.

We still don't know if officer Tillman sent these texts from his work phone and if so, did APD check it for other messages.

The girl would not speak to investigators so it's just Tillman's word that their relationship didn't go any further than those texts.