Virginia state trooper resigns after text about coughing on driver to spread COVID-19

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - A Virginia state trooper has resigned after he claimed in a text message that he intentionally coughed on a driver he ticketed in hopes of spreading the coronavirus. 

Virginia State Police began an internal investigation into Trooper Jacob Gooch after the texts surfaced during a homicide investigation in Arizona.

Gooch’s brother, Mark Gooch, is charged in the killing of a Sunday school teacher who disappeared from a Mennonite community in New Mexico.

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In one text exchange in mid-April, Jacob Gooch told Mark and another brother that he gave a Mennonite man a ticket and coughed on him “so he would spread Corona to the wedding they were going too.”

Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said Jacob Gooch resigned late last month.