Two former police officers in Orange County are facing felony kidnapping, fraud, and false imprisonment charges as part of an alleged illegal bounty hunting scheme.
Prosecutors say former Fullerton police sergeant Rodger Corbett, 49, and former Anaheim police officer Kevin Pederson, 34, unlawfully sought to recover funds from a man their lawyer says skipped out on $300,000 bail. As part of the operation, prosecutors allege Corbett and Pederson kidnapped the man’s girlfriend and drove her around for several hours in handcuffs. They were armed at the time and identified themselves as undercover police officers.
Both of the men had rocky histories within their respective police departments. Pedersen was fired in 2018 after a high-speed car chase that ended with the fatal shooting of a suspect. Anaheim paid a $2.9 million settlement with the family in that case. Corbett was charged with filing a false police report in 2018 in connection with a drunk driving accident involving former Fullerton city manger Joseph Felz. Corbett left the Fullerton Police Department in 2018.
The attorney for Pedersen and Corbett said his clients are “completely innocent” and were only “trying to capture a violent fugitive.”
Read more at the Los Angeles Times.