Tom Gallegos, president of the 300-plus-member Salt Lake Police Association, sent photographs depicting sexual acts and nudity over a work e-mail account "several times" between February 2005 and October 2006, according to police records and members of the city's Police Civilian Review Board.

Gallegos' actions earned him a written reprimand from police administrators in January.

But Mayor Rocky Anderson, who caught wind of the photos this week, said Gallegos would be investigated further. He declined to say which agency was investigating.

"This matter is being handled as any other matter involving potential criminal misconduct," Anderson said.

Asked how graphic the photographs were, Anderson said he began looking at them but stopped.

"Two was enough," he said.

Antje Curry, a former review board member who reviewed the Gallegos case, said the photos were "in horribly bad taste."

"I don't think there's any question that the e-mail that was passed around was pornographic," said Scott McCoy, the new acting chairman of the board, a citizens panel that investigates complaints of officer misconduct.

Gallegos did not return several phone calls seeking comment Friday.

Sending pornographic material over e-mail is a third-degree felony that carries a prison term of 30 days to five years, according to Utah law.

Assistant Attorney General Paul Amann said he expected any police department that suspected an officer of committing a felony to turn the investigation to an outside agency for review.

"If there is a crime there, that's something for law enforcement agency - presumably a separate law enforcement agency - to examine," Amann said.

That apparently did not happen in the Gallegos case.

Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank did not return phone calls this week. Police spokesman Jeff Bedard refused to say whether other officers exchanged the e-mails.

"We're really not going to say anything else except what's in there," Bedard said, referring to portions of Gallegos' disciplinary record, which were released this week by order of the city's Records Appeals Board.

The written reprimand in January was the third such discipline Gallegos has received in two years for inappropriate conduct with co-workers, according to the disciplinary records. The first two disciplinary actions were:

* Gallegos received a written reprimand in January for a comment he made to a female co-worker in July 2006. He told the woman, "I probably should not be alone in a room with you when you're on your knees," according to the reports.

* In February 2006, Gallegos was asked to sign a copy of the department's policy on personal contacts after sending a text message a few months earlier to a female employee who had earlier asked him to cease contact with her because it "caused problems with her current boyfriend."

Lt. Steve Winward, an investigator for the state bureau of Peace Officer Standards and Training, which certifies police officers, said POST may look into the case. POST typically reviews cases of officers accused of breaking laws but relies on the departments to notify investigators, he said.

"If someone is charged with a crime or should be charged, then we would probably want to look at it," Winward said.

In April, Gallegos called on the mayor to launch a criminal investigation to find the unnamed sources who told The Tribune that a review board ruled officers used excessive force against a senior citizen in Liberty Park.

Gallegos also requested from the Sandy Police Department the disciplinary records of former Sandy officer Ty McCartney, the review board's administrator and investigator.

In response to Gallegos' request for a probe of the news leak, the city hired a private investigator, who interviewed review board members and police officers and asked them to turn over personal phone records.

The source of the leak was not found, the mayor's spokesman said.

The leak investigation, which has cost the city $8,000, was one of the reasons cited by four review board members for their decision to quit this month. The resignations leave the 14-person panel with just five members.

rrizzo@sltrib.com