Former NY cop sentenced in traffic-stop strip scandal

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. -- A former police officer who forced four women to strip during traffic stops was sentenced Friday to the maximum term of five years and three months in prison.

Frank Wright, 36, pleaded guilty in April to violating the women's civil rights by forcing them to take off their clothes after pulling them over for traffic violations. In one case, prosecutors said, he forced a woman to walk home wearing only her underwear.

Court documents filed by federal prosecutors in February accused Wright of mistreating an additional nine women while on patrol on Long Island's Suffolk County between 1998 and 2000.

Several women said they were driven to isolated locations, sometimes in handcuffs. Some were released without being forced to disrobe.