Cruising For Love: Lusty Police Chief Caught on Tape

Perry, Chio (CBS) They may have only been trying to cop a feel, but an Ohio police chief and his amorous subordinate are feeling the heat as a dashboard cam video of their steamy antics has come out.

It didn't help that there was a prisoner in the back seat.

Perry Township Police Chief Timothy Escola resigned earlier this month after a tipster called the department and said Janine England, a part-time police officer, was getting "touchy feely" with the chief in the front seat of a police cruiser,according to CBS affiliate WOIO Cleveland.

The now infamous video, shot on June 2, 2009, shows the two making out — England took the initiative by touching the chief on the neck and face, kissing him, and even checking on the convict in the back to make sure he was asleep.

As word of the chief's highway hanky-panky began to leak, Escola, who is married with three children, tendered his retirement notice. He had been chief of police for four years.

In his letter Escola says, "I have been committed to this township for the past four years, and am now looking forward to spending quality time with my family and pursuing personal interests," reports The Canton Repository.

The prisoner in the car, 28-year-old Matthew Ruble, had been arrested for burglary, but has since been released. Police now say they arrested the wrong man.

Ruble's bosses and co-workers vouched for him. He is now threatening to sue the county for $1 million for the danger he faced in the car when all the hanky-panky was going on up front. "They're sitting there doing what they're doing and he's not even paying attention to the road," the now-free man said to Cleveland FOX 8 of the former police chief's driving.

An attorney for the former chief suggested the cruiser camera may have been rigged to set the chief up. But Charles Hall, the law director for the county, dismissed the theory. Hall acknowledged that one of the two may have switched the camera system into a "covert mode," which recorded their behavior, after holding the power button a bit too long. When that happens, reports the Repository, the camera continues to record but the display screen and all lighting turns dark, so neither would have known that their misdeeds were on camera for the world to see.

England will not be disciplined for her actions, reports the Repository. Hall said that England was "under direct command" of her boss and both officers were engaged in similar behavior. But England's record is hardly squeaky clean. In a seperate case, England sued an Ohio police force, where she formerly worked, for sexual harassment and racial discrimination. She later dropped the suit.

Twice married, the officer came to the United States from Sri Lanka on a college tennis scholarship.