A former Easton police officer was convicted Friday of having sex with two teenage girls while on duty, conduct the judge called “far beyond embarrassing.”

Judge C. Carey Deeley, Jr. sentenced Sgt. Jason Dyott, 38, in Talbot County Court to up to four years in prison. He will serve only six months, with the remaining time suspended. He will also be on supervised probation for three years.

Dyott, a 16-year veteran of the Easton Police Department, was convicted in September of two counts of misconduct in office for two incidents that occurred in 2022. according to court documents. In the first, Dyott had sex with a recent high school graduate she picked up from her friend’s house. Two days later, he kissed a 16-year-old high school student in a Target parking lot.

Both incidents took place in Dyott’s police car. The age of consent in Maryland is 16, with exceptions.

According to charging documents, Dyott frequently used his department-issued cell phone to arrange sexual encounters and send explicit Snapchat messages to teenagers and students at local high schools in Talbot County.

After learning he was under investigation, Dyott conducted Internet searches on his phone for phrases such as “legal age of consent in MD,” “Penalties for child pornography in Maryland” and “Teen sex laws in MD,” it said. the charging documents show.

Dyott’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

New sentencing guidelines aimed at imposing harsher penalties for police misconduct went into effect on the same day as Dyott’s hearing. State prosecutors argued that those stricter guidelines should apply in Dyott’s case and asked for a prison sentence for him.

Deeley ruled that regardless of the guidelines in place, Dyott’s crimes warranted prison time. He described Dyott’s conduct as “appalling”, according to a press release from the Maryland State Attorney’s Office.

State Attorney Charlton Howard III said in the statement that “law enforcement officials in positions of trust must be held accountable for their wrongdoing so that public confidence in their agency and in government authority can be preserved.”

One statement posted on Facebook, Easton Police Chief Alan Lowrey said Dyott was no longer with the department. Dyott has been on the force since June 2008 and became a sergeant around July 2020.

Police confirmed Dyott had resigned on Thursday before sentencing.