Oxygen Insider Exclusive!

Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more!

Sign Up for Free to View
Very Real

5 Hot Suspects and Cops That Heated Up Social Media

People getting out of prison are getting modeling contracts. Once social media deems you "hot," your whole life could change.

By Tamara Palmer

To scour Instagram, Twitter or Facebook for the hashtags #CopBae, #PrisonBae, #HotFelon and #HotConvict is to discover a hilarious social media phenomenon of sexy police photos and magnetic mugshot mania that’s grown so big over the past four years, it’s garnered modeling contracts for former inmates and has even been used to market new television series premieres. Meet the law enforcement officers and former perps who have made the biggest waves with their looks.

1. Jeremy Meeks

The most famous of them all? Likely. From mugshot to magazine cover, Meeks has turned full model.

Just released! Go get your copy! @fgukmagazine @jimjordanphotography

A post shared by JEREMY MEEKS (@jmeeksofficial) on

Jeremy Meeks wasn’t the first inmate with a mugshot to get attention on social media, but he’s the undisputed king of popularizing the #HotFelon/#HotConvict phenomenon and creating a new fairy tale life for himself in the process. After he was arrested on weapons charges in Stockton, California in June 2014, his photogenic mugshot featuring his teardrop tattoo and ice blue eyes went viral and a modeling contract awaited him upon his March 2016 release from prison. He has since dazzled New York Fashion Week runways, graced magazine covers and sparked a million memes. He also left his wife and sons in California and ran off with Chloe Green, the heir to UK department store Topshop. Meanwhile, he’s contemplated reconnecting with his father, who was released from prison after serving a 33 years of a life sentence for murder.

2. Mirella Ponce

Ponce, a member of the Tiny Rascal Gang and mother from Fresno, California, sizzled social media in October 2017 when she was arrested for possessing a loaded firearm in her car and a Facebook post from the Fresno Police Department sharing her mugshot was shared over 5,000 times in the first few days. She has taken some modeling test shots in possible hopes of following in fellow Californian Meeks’ footsteps on the catwalk one day.

3. Mekhi Alante Lucky

Lucky took a series of striking mugshots after being arrested five times in 2016 at age 20 for various crimes in North Carolina, including alleged assault on a woman, alleged breaking and entering, resisting an officer and speeding in a stolen vehicle in North Carolina. He’s now a working model signed by New York’s St. Claire Modeling and making waves with his two different colored eyes (due to a condition called heterochromia). His proud modeling agent Demanti St. Claire calls him a “hidden gem.”

In #HOTCOPS, we bring you not strippers, but real-life social media sensations:

4. Christopher Kohrs

 

 Kohrs became known as the “Hot Cop of Castro” in San Francisco, California in the summer 2014 after a Facebook fan page with photos sprouted up on the social media site thanks to an enamored photographer. The page, which had over 52,000 likes, was dismantled in December 2015 after the officer’s arrest for hit-and-run while off duty on medical leave, but people still continued to photograph him (and hit him up to take pictures with him) and even maintain a Twitter parody account.

5. Bylynn Hatcher

Hatcher, whose friends call him Lou, caught the attention of social media after the Gainesville Police Department in Gainesville, Florida posted a picture of him and his colleagues on Facebook assisting their community with Hurricane Irma relief efforts in September 2017. The handsome 32-year-old got national attention and is still fighting off suitors locally.

“After posting the pics, women started commenting like wildfire,” he told the blog Styl’d Grace. “A lot of the women kept asking where is the ‘Hot Chocolate’ (LOL!). Once [the department] posted my pics, women started making even crazier comments! I couldn’t believe some of the comments I saw. The comments were enjoyable, funny, flattering, tasteful and made me watch my back while walking down the street or conducting a traffic stop!” He went viral twice:

So who's the hottest of them all? And what's with this social media obsession with mugshots and cops?

(Photo: Stockton Police Department)