Jury finds TPD detective not guilty of sex crimes

A jury reached a verdict Thursday in the case of a Toledo police detective. The jury found the officer not guilty of sex crimes.

Michael Moore was charged with four counts related to paying to have sex with a minor. Moore claims he thought the girl was 19 years old when they met. She, in fact, turned out to be 13. He denies having sexual relations with the girl.

Moore served with the Toledo Police Department's vice and narcotics unit. He says he was working to build a relationship with the teen to become an informant for the department.

The prosecutor showed text messages exchanged between Moore and the teen. Moore was also questioned about picking up the girl in his own vehicle and taking her to an apartment.

Moore was charged with the felony sex crime back in 2016. He bonded out of jail in December of 2016.

During an interview with 13abc in 2016, Toledo police chief George Kral said, "We have officers who have been there for there four or five years and some make a career out there. There's some school of thought you should rotate officers out of vice every five or six years so they don't get too into that life style and that's something we look at if an officer looks like they need to be rotated out."

"The rest of the detectives assigned to the vice metro section are very ethical and above officers," Kral explained. "The nature of that type of work it takes a special type of officer. The officers up there are more than capable of handling those types of investigations ethically."

Closing statements in the case were delivered Wednesday afternoon. The jury began deliberation after each side presented closing arguments.