OHP Trooper On Leave, Accused Of Using Privileged Data To Stalk Women

Charges have been filed against an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper who happens to also be a former University of Oklahoma football player in connection with the possible stalking and harassment of women, according to the Norman Transcript.

The five charges against Rodney Lynn Rideaux, 40, were filed Wednesday in Cleveland County District Court, according to records. Specifically, the charge is "unauthorized use of Oklahoma's law enforcement telecom system."

However, an affidavit details how Rideaux was allegedly using the information.

According to the affidavit filed Wednesday in Cleveland County District Court, Rideaux ran license plate information on multiple women in the Norman area. Investigators said these were women who attended Fitness One gym, located in the 2300 block of 36th Avenue Northwest. The investigation started after an OHP lieutenant received a complaint over the phone that Rideaux had been sleeping with his wife.

One of the women who spoke to investigators said she knew Rideaux from Fitness One gym and that he began making making comments to her like, "You are so sexy, I wouldn't be able to keep my hands off of you if I were your husband."

In early Nov. 2017, Rideaux told that woman that he didn't know she lived in Oklahoma City. However, the woman had never discussed where she lived with Rideaux, according to investigators. When she asked him how he knew, Rideaux allegedly replied that "he had his ways of knowing," according to the affidavit.

On another occasion, Rideaux allegedly approached the woman at Fitness One and said her cell phone number out loud, telling her that he had gotten her number from the child care log sheet at the gym. Later in the month, the woman met with Rideaux at a department store parking lot and while they sat in Rideaux's patrol car, she inquired about how he found her address -- and that's when he showed her his computer screen, according to the affidavit.

The woman later made friends with another woman at Fitness One, and she learned that the other woman and Rideaux had been involved in an affair for a year and a half and that Rideaux had run her vehicle registration, too.

The investigation into Rideaux revealed that he allegedly harassed the women after they had declined his advances, and in one instance blocked a woman from getting into her apartment, asking her, "What the **** are you thinking? Why aren't you returning any of my calls?" According to the affidavit, the woman decided not to prosecute as long as Rideaux left her alone.

The FBI sent everything run through Rideaux from Sept. 2017 to May 2018, containing nearly two dozen instances of Rideaux leveraging privileged information in situations where "there were no correlating warnings, citations, or collisions," according to the affidavit.

A spokesman for the OHP issued the following statement:

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol is aware of the charges filed against Rodney Rideaux on October 17th by the Cleveland County District Attorney. We are confident the criminal justice system will reach the appropriate resolution in this matter.

Rideaux is on paid-administrative leave, according to the OHP.

Rideaux played defensive back for Oklahoma from 1996 to 1999 and was a captain in his final season.

This is a developing story. News 9 will add more details as we get them confirmed.