If nothing else, you can at least say this about former state trooper Kelly Helleson: she proved quite willing to go above and beyond the call of duty.
That was the case anyways on the night of July 13, 2012, when she helped a colleague with a traffic stop along George Bush Turnpike in Irving. Though the alleged offense was relatively minor -- a littered cigarette butt and a phantom weed smell -- Helleson snapped on a pair of latex gloves and performed a rather invasive cavity search of the car's two occupants, Angel Dobbs and her niece, Ashley Dobbs.
See also: A State Trooper Conducted a Painful Roadside Cavity Search Over a Phantom Weed Smell, Lawsuit Claims
Lucky (if mortifying) for the Dobbs that this happened directly in front of the dash cam of a Texas Department of Public Safety squad car. That made it much easier for a Dallas County grand jury to indict her last year and it no doubt contributed to her decision this morning to plead guilty to of two counts of official oppression.
Helleson, who was fired not long after video of the cavity search went viral, will serve two years' probation and pay a $2,000 fine.
Send your story tips to the author, Eric Nicholson.
