Lawsuit accuses former Seward police chief of forcing woman to have sex with him
A woman who said the former Seward police chief forced her to have sex with him to avoid criminal charges is suing him in federal court.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday against Robert I. Baldwin Jr. and the Seward Police Department includes claims of civil assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress and false imprisonment.
A message left at the police department Wednesday afternoon was not immediately returned.
Baldwin, 51, is scheduled for trial April 18 on charges of sexual extortion, obstruction, official oppression and hindering apprehension in Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court.
According the lawsuit, the plaintiff, 37, was pulled over by Baldwin in February 2020 after running a stop sign in Seward.
The Tribune-Review does not name victims of alleged sexual assault.
Baldwin told the woman, whose driver’s license was suspended because of a DUI, that he knew she wasn’t supposed to be driving, according to the lawsuit. He suggested they drive to a more remote area to discuss the matter because there were too many people around, it says.
Once they moved to the more secluded area, the lawsuit said, Baldwin told the woman “‘he could work this out for her.’ ”
“Plaintiff was immediately frightened because she clearly understood defendant Baldwin’s implied statement that he wanted a sexual favor in exchange for not arresting her but declined his advances,” the lawsuit said.
Baldwin did not charge her. However, he texted her later that night and said he’d be at her residence the next morning, the lawsuit says.
When he showed up, the lawsuit says, the plaintiff felt she had no choice but to engage in sexual activity with him so she could avoid arrest.
After the incident, the lawsuit alleges, Baldwin would see the woman almost every day driving to work but did not cite her.
According to the criminal charges filed against Baldwin, he also is accused of offering another woman leniency in exchange for sex stemming from his work as a part-time officer in St. Clair.
In that case, the woman told state police Baldwin confiscated a marijuana pipe from her but said she could “work off” the charges, authorities say.
The woman said she met with Baldwin three times but rebuffed his advances.
Paula Reed Ward is a TribLive reporter covering federal and Allegheny County courts. She joined the Trib in 2020 after spending nearly 17 years at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where she was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team. She is the author of “Death by Cyanide.” She can be reached at pward@triblive.com.
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