By DAVE PHILIPPS
DEC. 10, 2015
Daniel Holtzclaw, a former Oklahoma City police officer accused of raping
women while on duty, was found guilty on Thursday.
Mr. Holtzclaw was convicted on 18 of 36 counts of sexual assault in
attacks on 13 women. Conviction on the charges comes with the possibility of a
life sentence.
The former police officer worked the night shift on the northeast side of
the city. In the trial, prosecutors said that from December 2013 to June 2014,
Mr. Holtzclaw targeted women he stopped while on patrol, singling out poor,
black victims with criminal backgrounds whose stories would not be believed.
“He didn’t choose C.E.O.s or soccer moms; he chose women he could
count on not telling what he was doing,” the prosecutor, District Attorney Lori
McConnell, said in closing arguments on Monday, according to a report by
Reuters. “He counted on the fact no one would believe them and no one would
care.”
Thirteen women testified in the fiveweek trial, describing sexual assaults
that started with groping and progressed to forced oral sex and rape. Many
said the officer had found them with drugs and told them he would not arrest
them if they did as he said.
Prosecutors also presented evidence of DNA found near Mr. Holtzclaw’s
pants zipper that matched the DNA of a 17yearold girl who testified that Mr.
Holtzclaw had raped her on her front porch.
Mr. Holtzclaw, who was arrested in August 2014 and fired from the
Oklahoma City Police Department in January, declined to testify. Defense
lawyers called only one witness, an exgirlfriend who said Mr. Holtzclaw never
made her feel uncomfortable.
KFORTV reported that the verdict came down on Mr. Holtzclaw’s 29th
birthday, and the reporter covering the trial broadcast video on Twitter of
victims’ supporters singing “Happy Birthday” to him.
The jury began deliberating Monday evening after testimony from more
than 40 witnesses.
Correction: December 12, 2015
Because of an editing error, an article on Friday about the
conviction of a former Oklahoma City police officer on charges of
raping women while on duty misstated his age in some copies. The
officer, Daniel Holtzclaw, is 29, not 28. (He turned 29 on Thursday,
the day of the verdict.)
A version of this article appears in print on December 11, 2015, on page A28 of the New York
edition with the headline: Oklahoma City Officer Guilty; Was Accused of Rapes on Duty
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/11/us/former-oklahoma-city-police-officer-found-guilty-of-rapes.html
Thursday, February 18, 2016
2 Los Angeles Police Officers Accused of Repeated Sexual Assaults
By LIAM STACK FEB. 18, 2016
Two officers from the Los Angeles Police Department have been charged with repeatedly sexually assaulting four women over the course of more than two years, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
The officers, James Nichols, 44, and Luis Valenzuela, 43, were each charged with multiple counts of sexual assault, including rape, according to a statement from the office of the Los Angeles County district attorney, Jackie Lacey, on Wednesday.
Prosecutors also charged Mr. Valenzuela with one count of assault with a firearm, accusing him of pointing a gun at one of the victims. The criminal complaint said most of the assaults happened while the officers were on duty and armed and that some took place inside a police vehicle.
The officers are scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday, and prosecutors said they would ask that bail be set at more than $3.8 million for Mr. Nichols and more than $3.7 million for Mr. Valenzuela. If convicted, both men face a sentence of life in prison.
Prosecutors said the string of attacks began after the two officers were assigned to work as partners in the police department’s Hollywood division in late 2008 and continued into 2011. Some of the victims were assaulted multiple times, prosecutors said. The district attorney’s office declined to provide additional information about the assaults, except to say that the victims were aged 19, 24, 25 and 34 at the time of the attacks and had been arrested for drugrelated crimes. “Because of the nature of the charges, we are not commenting further on the facts of the case or evidence,” said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.
The Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement on Wednesday that the case stemmed from an investigation it conducted into complaints against the two officers, who were longtime veterans of the force. Mr. Nichols was a police officer in Los Angeles for 15 years and Mr. Valenzuela for 18 years, the department said. Both men have been relieved of duty. “I will say again, any officer that abuses the public’s trust is not welcome in the LAPD and we will continue vigorously investigating officers accused of alleged crimes and cooperate fully with the District Attorney’s office,” Charlie Beck, the Los Angeles police chief, said in the statement.
The charges in Los Angeles have echoes of another recent case involving accusations of a police officer assaulting women. In that case, a former Oklahoma City police officer, Daniel Holtzclaw, was convicted in December of raping 13 women while on duty. Prosectors said Mr. Holtzclaw preyed on poor black women with criminal histories whose stories he thought were unlikely to be believed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/18/us/2-los-angeles-police-officers-accused-of-repeated-sexual-assaults.html
Two officers from the Los Angeles Police Department have been charged with repeatedly sexually assaulting four women over the course of more than two years, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
The officers, James Nichols, 44, and Luis Valenzuela, 43, were each charged with multiple counts of sexual assault, including rape, according to a statement from the office of the Los Angeles County district attorney, Jackie Lacey, on Wednesday.
Prosecutors also charged Mr. Valenzuela with one count of assault with a firearm, accusing him of pointing a gun at one of the victims. The criminal complaint said most of the assaults happened while the officers were on duty and armed and that some took place inside a police vehicle.
The officers are scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday, and prosecutors said they would ask that bail be set at more than $3.8 million for Mr. Nichols and more than $3.7 million for Mr. Valenzuela. If convicted, both men face a sentence of life in prison.
Prosecutors said the string of attacks began after the two officers were assigned to work as partners in the police department’s Hollywood division in late 2008 and continued into 2011. Some of the victims were assaulted multiple times, prosecutors said. The district attorney’s office declined to provide additional information about the assaults, except to say that the victims were aged 19, 24, 25 and 34 at the time of the attacks and had been arrested for drugrelated crimes. “Because of the nature of the charges, we are not commenting further on the facts of the case or evidence,” said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.
The Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement on Wednesday that the case stemmed from an investigation it conducted into complaints against the two officers, who were longtime veterans of the force. Mr. Nichols was a police officer in Los Angeles for 15 years and Mr. Valenzuela for 18 years, the department said. Both men have been relieved of duty. “I will say again, any officer that abuses the public’s trust is not welcome in the LAPD and we will continue vigorously investigating officers accused of alleged crimes and cooperate fully with the District Attorney’s office,” Charlie Beck, the Los Angeles police chief, said in the statement.
The charges in Los Angeles have echoes of another recent case involving accusations of a police officer assaulting women. In that case, a former Oklahoma City police officer, Daniel Holtzclaw, was convicted in December of raping 13 women while on duty. Prosectors said Mr. Holtzclaw preyed on poor black women with criminal histories whose stories he thought were unlikely to be believed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/18/us/2-los-angeles-police-officers-accused-of-repeated-sexual-assaults.html
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Retired cop files complaint against Philly cops
DAVID GAMBACORTA, Staff Writer
Posted: Wednesday, February 3, 2016, 12:16 AMKEVIN BOOKER figures it was around 11:30 at night when someone started pounding on his front door, late enough to make him a little nervous.
When he swung open the door to his Logan home on Jan. 8, no one was there. Booker shrugged it off, trudged back to bed, and went to sleep.
An hour later, the pounding resumed. This time it was loud enough to wake his neighbors.
Booker, 54, a retired Philadelphia police officer, grabbed his .380-caliber handgun and headed for the door again.
"I said, 'Who is it?' and I heard someone say, 'Police, open up!' " he said.
He placed his gun on a banister and opened the door.
There, two police officers accused Booker of using two phony $10 bills to pay a delivery driver for a cheesesteak and pizza that Booker insisted he never ordered.
During the ensuing back-and-forth, Booker claims, the officers forced their way into his house, handcuffed him, and threatened to haul him off to jail.
But they eventually left, after realizing that Booker hadn't ordered any food or dished out any counterfeit bills. Internal Affairs is investigating the incident, and Booker is vowing to sue the Police Department.
"This is the kind of thing that makes it harder for people to trust the police," Booker told the Daily News. "And it makes people like me angry. I used to be a police officer."
Booker said a delivery driver from Sorrento's Pizza, on Olney Avenue near Ogontz, stood near his house on Ashdale Street near Belfield Avenue while one of the officers questioned Booker about the supposed transaction.
"He said, 'Look, if you don't give [the driver] his $20, I'm taking you to Northwest Detectives,' " Booker said. "I didn't order any food. I asked the delivery guy, 'Are you sure you came to this house?' He just pointed at my address number and then at his phone."
Booker said he told the cops to check the phone number on the delivery slip, certain that it wouldn't match his.
They didn't go for it.
Booker claims that one of the officers forcibly entered his house, threw him to the floor, handcuffed him, and punched him in the back of the head. The other cop rifled through his trash, recycling bin, and refrigerator, perhaps hoping to find traces of the takeout meal.
"I said, 'I used to be a police officer,' and the one officer said, 'I don't care. It doesn't matter. You probably got fired anyway,' " Booker said.
Booker spent nine years on the police force, retiring in 2000 because of a knee injury he said he sustained in a fall.
The cops pulled off the cuffs and left. Booker said he tracked down the delivery driver, who apologized for the confusing ordeal. The driver explained that someone had used Booker's address to order the food, then paid him with the phony bills at the curb and took off.
Booker said he filed a complaint with Internal Affairs and was interviewed by a detective. He also hired the prominent civil rights attorney David Rudovsky.
"Once we have the results of the investigation, we'll make a further determination on how to proceed," Rudovsky said.
"I think they need to be fired," Booker said of the two cops. "They didn't do their jobs properly. They violated me."
Lt. John Stanford, a police spokesman, said the officers are on active duty while the Internal Affairs investigation plays out.
215-854-5994
On Twitter: @dgambacorta
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20160203_Retired_cop_files_complaint_against_Philly_cops.html
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