photo by: Douglas County Sheriff's Office

David Shane Williams, pictured in February 2020

Updated at 3:44 p.m. Tuesday:

A Lawrence police officer reportedly used his credentials on multiple occasions to access driving records of a woman with whom he’s involved in custody litigation, court documents allege.

He didn’t think accessing the information was illegal, he reportedly told detectives. He’s also accused of contacting her insurance company to report her for driving on a suspended license.

David Shane Williams, 32, was charged Feb. 20 with official misconduct, a class A misdemeanor, according to Douglas County District Court records.

Williams resigned from the Lawrence Police Department on Dec. 12, 2019, Public Affairs Officer Sgt. Amy Rhoads confirmed via email recently. He had been placed on administrative leave with pay on Nov. 21, 2019, she said.

The Journal-World requested and on Tuesday received the affidavit supporting Williams’ charges. Allegations in affidavits have not been proved in court, and defendants in criminal cases should be presumed not guilty unless and until they are convicted.

According to the affidavit:

An auditor of the state’s Criminal Justice Information System who is an employee of the Kansas Highway Patrol contacted Lawrence police on Nov. 21, 2019, to alert them to a phone call she had received. A woman wanted to know how many times Williams had checked the CJIS database for her driver’s license information.

The same day, LPD started to investigate. Two detectives interviewed the woman. She reportedly told them that she was involved in child support and child custody litigation with Williams.

Williams’ attorney reportedly contacted the woman’s attorney on April 26, 2019, saying that the woman did not have a valid driver’s license because of a DUI but had been driving the child around. The attorney was requesting information on the status and details of the woman’s suspended license, according to the affidavit.

The woman reportedly told LPD that it was “strange for Mr. Williams to know she had a DUI because she had not told him this, or anyone associated with him.”

Shortly after the April correspondence, the woman told police, she received a call from her insurance agent. The agent told her someone identifying himself as a police officer called the company and said that the woman had been driving on a suspended license and that she was accident-prone, according to the affidavit.

The woman’s attorney reportedly then contacted Williams’ attorney and said that he believed it was abuse of his police authority and that Williams needed to retract his statement to the insurance company and apologize or the attorney would call LPD to report the incident and request an investigation, according to the affidavit.

The woman received a phone call from Williams apologizing shortly thereafter, she told police; she accepted and promised not to contact LPD.

Thinking about it later on, the woman was curious how many times Williams had accessed information about her driving records, according to the affidavit. She called the CJIS auditor to ask on Nov. 21, but the auditor reportedly said the results of the inquiry could not be shared but that she was calling LPD to request an investigation.

The woman reportedly told police that “although she did not think it was proper for Mr. Williams to access her driver’s license information, she did not want Mr. Williams to lose his job” because she had called the auditor, according to the affidavit.

Detectives spoke with Williams the same day, according to the affidavit. He reportedly admitted to accessing the woman’s driver’s license and insurance information in the database, sharing information with his attorney and calling the woman’s insurance company.

“Mr. Williams said he knew at this point what he did was wrong,” the affidavit says, referring to when the woman’s attorney demanded that Williams apologize.

The auditor’s records showed that Williams had accessed the woman’s information on four occasions: once on March 28, 2019, and three more times between April 25 and 26, 2019, according to the affidavit. Williams reportedly told detectives that he had no reason to doubt that was accurate.

“Mr. Williams advised he did not think it was illegal to access the Kansas files pertaining to Kansas registration and driver’s license as long as he did not check any of her information through (the National Crime Information Center),” the affidavit says.

Williams reportedly told the detectives that he called the insurance company because if the woman was driving their child around on a suspended license, if there were an accident, “there could be issues.”

LPD policy, as displayed on the department’s website, specifies what types of networks can be used to access the CJIS. It notes that “All traffic to and from the Lawrence Police Department on the secured CJIS network shall be for Criminal Justice or Law Enforcement business only,” and that violations of those policies and procedures will result in disciplinary action against the user. Violations could also subject the department to loss of access to ASTRA, or Automated Statewide Telecommunications Records Access, according to the policy manual.

Williams’ attorney handling his criminal case, Michael Riling, is not the same one handling the custody case. Riling said Tuesday that he and his client have no comment.

Williams’ next court appearance is set for March 18, according to online court records.