Stephen Roland Bodley (inset center) in an Orange County Jail mug shot; Apopka Police Department cars (Apopka Police Department)
A Florida man tried to become a police officer, but his application failed and he instead went to jail after admitting under questioning that he abused a young girl by playing “little sexual games” when he was a teenager.
Stephen Roland Bodley’s train wreck of a job interview with the Apopka Police Department took place in June 2021 and led to his “life felony” conviction at a jury trial last Wednesday in Orange County.
The office of 9th Judicial Circuit State Attorney Andrew Bain said that Bodley, now 26, was convicted of committing sexual battery of a child under the age of 12 when the defendant was not yet 18. Bodley was found guilty largely due to his own prior admissions, even though he denied the abuse when he testified in his own defense at trial.
“On June 16, 2021, Bodley was conducting a job interview at the Apopka Police Department for a position that he applied for as a sworn police officer. The certified voice stress analysis examiner performed a voice stress examination on Bodley. During the examination, the examiner asked Bodley to expand on concerning answers he provided in a pre-test questionnaire,” prosecutors said. “In it, Bodley described sexually abusing a child several years ago. He admitted the same when the examiner asked him to explain further.”
Authorities said that Bodley admitted to sexually abusing the victim “on three separate occasions.”
An affidavit in support of Bodley’s arrest warrant detailed that abuse took place between the beginning of 2012 to the end of 2016.
Prior to a “Voice Stress” exam, Bodley had completed a written questionnaire that asked him if he had “ever sexually assaulted anyone.” He answered in the affirmative, adding that the assaults occurred at his Apopka home.
“Defendant Bodley wrote that he had when he was 12-13 years old and the incident occurred 10 years ago. Defendant Bodley wrote as an explanation ‘I would play sex games with [redacted] and she didn’t fully understand what was happening,”” the affidavit said. “I inquired further of Defendant Bodley to explain his written response. When asked how old the victim was he stated, ‘I can’t remember, but um, but what do you call it, yes, um, I used to, um, play these little sexual games, like oral with my little [redacted] and I known she, she didn’t know fully what was going on, and I used to watch porn a lot, so I had like a little addiction when I was younger.’”
The series of admissions was shocking enough, but Bodley didn’t stop there.
“Detective Landry asked Defendant Bodley to clarify what sex games meant. Defendant Bodley stated he pulled his penis out, then he switched to explain the first time it happened was an ‘accident,’” the affidavit said. “He explained that he was going to his room naked and she was laughing and then she put her mouth on it (referring to his penis). Defendant Bodley stated that it gave him an idea to ‘play this game’ and he would play the game with her ‘all the time.’”
Even more surprisingly, Bodley clearly stated that he knew what he was doing and the 9- or 10-year-old victim did not.
“Defendant Bodley stated, ‘me knowing what it was, she probably didn’t know what was going on, and so that’s why I put it there,” the affidavit continued. “When asked how old the child was, he stated he believed she was 9 to 10 years old at the time and that she was not too much younger than he was. When asked how many times he thought it happened, Defendant Bodley stated ‘probably’ 3 times.”
Cops said they were able to reach the victim’s mother and the woman said she knew Bodley “since he was a baby.”
“She did not suspect anything occurring with Defendant Bodley based on their relationship. She stated Defendant Bodley took a personal interest in her daughter, but thought it was a normal familial relationship,” court documents said. The woman recalled, however, that Bodley “worked two jobs near her residence and would come to her house between the shifts at Universal Studios and Starbucks,” sometimes picking up her daughter from school unannounced.
The mother also remembered a time when Bodley’s mother called her to warn of “misconduct that could be occurring between her sons and the victim” and that she “might accuse one of the boys of something.”
Documents said that the victim “became visibly emotional and stated she could not remember anything” when asked about the abuse, but eventually she remembered the assault, as Bodley described it, in his bedroom when she was around 10 years old.
“[A]nd after that [assault] she ‘blacked out,’” the affidavit said. “The victim stated it happened multiple times on different days in the Defendant’s room. Each time it happened, she recalled the Defendant putting his penis in her mouth.”
The victim also said that Bodley laughed about it.
“Based on the disclosure made by the victim, Defendant Bodley was well into his teenage years when he began sexually battering the to child. This behavior continued throughout his teenage years into adulthood,” cops concluded. “A reasonable teenager would know this behavior is unacceptable, which was supported during Defendant Bodley’s pre-test interview disclosure that he knew he was taking advantage of his and that she did not or would not have understood what he was doing to her.”
The court docket reviewed by Law&Crime shows that Bodley’s sentencing was set for June 24.
Read the affidavit here.
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