After police arrested her for possessing less than half a gram of cannabis, a mom claims she was brutally raped in jail and then ignored by other guards when she begged for help.
The post Epileptic Mom Brutally Raped By Cop After She Was Arrested for a Half-Gram of Medicinal Weed appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
When a female police officer confronted her colleague about strangling and raping her, he admitted to the attack and bragged about the bursts of anger that gave him the nickname "The Hulk."
A sheriff’s deputy has been charged with first-degree rape for sexually assaulting a person who was physically helpless, in his home.
A teenage girl who was handcuffed and raped by two NYPD detectives claims 9 officers came to the hospital and tried to convince her not to press charges.
Two NYPD detectives are facing first-degree rape charges for arresting a teenage girl and then raping her while she was handcuffed in the back of their van.
Houston – The account of a woman who was raped by police on the side of the road after a traffic stop turned into a horrific public “cavity search,” because officers claimed they “smelled marijuana” in 2015, has finally gained enough attention for the local sheriff to issue a response.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez released a statement on Facebook, which reminded the public of the department’s perspective on the incident when it referred to the victim of the horrendous treatment as “a female suspect” in the first sentence.
However, it should be noted that when Charnesia Corley, a 21-year-old African American college student with no criminal history, was first stopped, the only thing she was suspected of doing was allegedly running a stop sign.
“I understand and respect the community’s concerns regarding the parking lot search of a female suspect during a June 2015 traffic stop. I want to be emphatically clear that today’s Harris County Sheriff’s Office is fully committed to ensuring that every resident of our community is treated with dignity and respect, even if they are suspected of committing a crime. We hold the public’s trust as sacred, and we will always strive to be worth of that trust.”
Within minutes after the traffic stop began in June 2015, Harris County Deputies William Strong and Ronaldine Pierre claimed that they “smelled marijuana” on Corley, which somehow served as justification for their decision to strip off her clothes in public, force her to lay on the side of the road with her ankles in the air, and to spend over 10 minutes raping her—or as they called it, performing a “vaginal cavity search”—all because they claimed that they smelled a hint of an illegal plant. They found nothing.
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The statement from Sheriff Gonzalez did not directly acknowledge that the actions of Strong and Pierre were wrong and vile, but he did say that the department’s policy requires officers to obtain a warrant before conducting a strip search, and when that warrant is obtained, the search must be conducted in a designated facility.
“Harris County Sheriff’s Office policy prohibits deputies from conducting strip searches without a warrant. In cases in which a warrant is obtained, strip searches may be conducted in a private, sanitary and appropriate facility.”
Despite the fact that none of the standard procedures listed by Gonzalez were followed by either one of the deputies on the scene, neither of those officers were charged, or even fired for their illegal actions.
As The Free Thought Project reported, while Strong and Pierre were initially charged with official oppression and indicted by a grand jury, their charges mysteriously disappeared before they had the chance to go to trial, after the District Attorney’s office took their charges to a second grand jury where they were dismissed earlier this month.
“They were already indicted and set for trial under the old administration and the new administration no bills them, finds a grand jury that will no bill them and they claim it’s based on new evidence,” Sam Cammack, Corley’s attorney said regarding the sudden change.
The statement from Sheriff Gonzalez confirmed that not only are Strong and Pierre not facing criminal charges, they have both returned to work in some capacity for the Harris County Sheriff’s Department, and their salaries are still being paid by the taxpayers.
“Criminal charges are no longer pending against two of the deputies involved in this case. Deputy W. Strong, who did not actively participate in the search of the subject in this case will be allowed to return to patrol duties. Deputy R. Pierre, who initiated the search, will remain in her current assignment within the Communications and Technology Bureau.”
Over 200 individuals commented on the Facebook post, the majority of which were quick to call out the Harris County Sherriff’s Department for its inability to hold its officers accountable. Several noted that while the department refers to the officers’ actions as simply a “cavity search,” they should start calling it what it is: sexual assault.
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“Someone should lose their job at a minimum and criminal charges should be pressed against all of the officers involved. This was a crime against someone’s child,” one woman commented.
“You and your department screwed up. These types of actions are never permissible in public. Your oath swearing community servants did something that would cause any reasonable person to go completely berserk and this statement is the best you can do?” one man wrote.
Gonzalez also confirmed that “this incident is the subject of an ongoing civil lawsuit,” which means that while there is a chance Charnesia Corley could receive financial compensation for the horrific treatment she endured, it will come at the hands of the taxpayers, and it is not guaranteed that William Strong or Ronaldine Pierre will be held accountable for their actions.
*The following dash cam footage of the incident contains graphic content*
Houston, TX — Charnesia Corley was on her way to the store to get medicine for her sick mother in June of 2015 when she was detained by police for allegedly running a stop sign. Within minutes, this routine traffic stop turned into a waking nightmare as cops publicly raped her in search of a plant.
The incident was so horrific that the cops involved in the public rape were actually charged with official oppression. However, like most cops who get charged with a crime, this month, those charges were dropped.
As ABC 13 reports, a Harris County grand jury cleared William Strong and Ronaldine Pierre of official oppression last week. It was the second time the case against them had been presented. The first time, under the previous DA administration, a grand jury indicted the officers and former Sheriff Ron Hickman was furious.
As the Free Thought Project previously reported, the stop and subsequent search were entirely invalid and the charges against Corley were all eventually dropped as there never was any marijuana.
As a result of an investigation by the Civil Rights Division of the Harris County District Attorney’s office into the incident, two of the three officers involved were charged last year with Official Oppression, a Class A misdemeanor. They were facing up to a year in jail — a ridiculously insignificant punishment for such a gruesome crime — but that’s not even an option anymore — thanks to the DA granting them blue privilege.
Last week, as ABC 13 notes, the District Attorney’s Office took the cases to a second grand jury, who dismissed the charges. Court documents note the reason as “grand jury action.”
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READ MORE: Police Openly Resisting Legislation that Will Ban Cops from Having Legal Sex with Prostitutes
“They were already indicted and set for trial under the old administration and the new administration no bills them, finds a grand jury that will no bill them and they claim it’s based on new evidence,” Sam Cammack, Corley’s attorney said.
However, that ‘new evidence’ is nothing more than medical records the state always had, according to Cammack.
Cammack told ABC 13 that they have a video to back up all of this and they are now promising to release it.
“Once the community sees this video, they’re going to be outraged, disgusted with what they see and the District Attorney’s Office stuck themselves right in the middle of this case,” said Cammack.
Both of the rapist deputies have kept their jobs in spite of the now dropped charges. Since they publicly raped Corley on the side of the road 2015, they’ve been collecting their paychecks.
As TFTP reported at the time, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Department, Strong, the deputy who pulled Corley over asked her to step out of the vehicle after “smelling what he believed to be marijuana.”
However, during a search of Corley’s vehicle, without her consent, no illegal plants were found. But this sadistic cop wasn’t done just yet. Strong knew deep down that this woman’s story about getting medicine for her mother was a lie, and she must have been smuggling this evil plant inside her body somewhere. The deputy then handcuffed Corley and placed her into the back of his cruiser.
Being a male, the deputy felt that it would be in poor taste to penetrate this woman’s bodily orifices himself, so he called a female deputy over to conduct the public roadside rape in a politically correct fashion.
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Upon arriving, the female deputy, Pierre, ordered the handcuffed woman out of the car and into the parking lot.
“She tells me to pull my pants down. I said, ‘Ma’am, I don’t have any underwear on.’ She says, ‘Well, that doesn’t matter. Pull your pants down,"” Corley said.
Because Corley didn’t immediately prostrate herself to be vaginally raped by a peace officer’s appendages in search of an illegal plant, the deputy charged her with resisting arrest.
In spite of her verbal protests, Corley was then stripped down in public and forcefully penetrated by this public servant — in the best interests of society, no doubt.
“I bend over and she proceeds to try to force her hand inside of me. I tell her, ‘Ma’am, No. You cannot do this,’” Corley explained.
Corley maintains that at no time did she ever consent to be raped by deputies.
Corley told ABC 13 this week she had her legs up in the air for 10 minutes as deputies searched her for marijuana and apparently the dashcam shows it.
“I felt like they sexually assaulted me. I really do. I felt disgusted, downgraded and humiliated,” Corley said.
According to Harris County Sheriff’s spokesperson, however, this stop was justified and the department did everything by the book.
The vileness of the state’s wicked and immoral war on drugs has reared it repugnant face. When will the rest of society see that face and wake up to this atrocity? When will the people say “enough is enough,” and that finger raping innocent people on the roadside in search of a plant that’s legal in in some form in over half the country is no longer welcome in our culture?
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Please share this article with your friends and family to help wake them up to this very real American Horror Story.
Alaskan police are still fighting twin bills winding their way through state legislature — because the proposed legislation would make sexual contact with sex workers illegal.
Anchorage Police Deputy Chief Sean Case traveled to Juneau earlier this year to plead the need for officers to be able to touch sex workers during an investigation, or their cover — and, thus, the case — would be blown.
House Bill 112 and Senate Bill 73, Case claims, ‘are offensive to law enforcement officers and unnecessary because myriad laws and regulations already govern such conduct.’
HB 112 states, in part, “An offender commits the crime of sexual assault in the third degree if the offender … while acting as a peace officer in the state, engages in sexual penetration with a person with reckless disregard that the person is … the victim, witness, or perpetrator of a crime under investigation by the offender.”
“If we make that act (of touching) a misdemeanor we have absolutely no way of getting involved in that type of arrest,” Case told the Alaska Dispatch News.
Under the premise officers have only limited physical contact with prostitutes — such as touching a woman’s breast upon request when posing as a john — Case and his ilk around the nation feel stripping cops of that ability would be detrimental.
In actuality, however, an epidemic of police violence extends tragically into the world of sex work — officer rapes of prostitutes are far from uncommon. Indeed, sex workers will ‘cop-check’ a potential john — requesting contact they know to be illegal in order to determine if the person is an undercover officer, who would at least theoretically not break the law.
But officers frequently do have extensive sexual contact — up to, and including, sexual intercourse — with targets of prostitution investigations.
Maggie McNeill writes for Reason,
“The Alaska bills were introduced through the efforts of sex worker activists, who well know that in every place where sex work is criminalized or even semi-criminalized (and that includes all 50 American states) police and/or their paid informants routinely take sexual liberties ranging from groping to full intercourse with women they’re ‘investigating.’ Sometimes they claim this is necessary for ‘gathering evidence’ or (as in the Anchorage excuse above) part of the process of arresting the sex workers. Other times the activity somehow doesn’t make it into police reports at all. (Imagine that!) This is exactly why Alaskan activists want the contact prohibited.”
In short, the pompous, self-serving claim police must have what amounts to lascivious contact represents an abuse of power under the color of law — particularly when Case’s argument against the criminalizing legislation can be handily picked apart upon examination.
In the same interview with Alaska Dispatch News, Case asserted, “We are not out there to go out and find that street prostitute. What we’re interested in now is the trafficking.”
McNeill rightly notes the dangerous portent in that statement, as Case literally argues the need to be able to further assault victims of trafficking in the interest of solving sex and human trafficking crimes — and the deputy chief isn’t alone in that thinking, on both trafficking and low-level prostitution.
Across the United States, myriad police departments stridently contend the necessity of sexual contact during investigations.
In fact, the Michigan Senate only recently passed legislation backtracking a law in place since 1931 — which grants cops immunity for physical, sexual contact with sex workers in the course of performing an investigation — amending it to assign criminal charges to officers found guilty of that contact.
Michigan State Police, unlike their peers in Alaska, have not publicly supported or denounced the state’s Senate Bill 275, rather, as spokesperson Shannon Banner stated in an email to Vice,
“There’s not much to say about this legislation, as it does not impact us. This was not a tactic used by our troopers.”
But sex workers in Michigan beg to differ.
“Although publicly the state police have repeatedly said, ‘We never use that tactic,’ in the sex worker community, we know that’s false,” opined Crysta, a sex worker who runs the Michigan chapter of Sex Workers Outreach Program. “Officers have often had sex with sex workers in Michigan, but they just don’t report it.”
Worse, the proposed amendment does not clearly delineate officer behavior which should be deemed criminal — allowing for charges of “prostitution-related offenses” against cops whom sex workers allege “engaged in sexual penetration while in the course of his or her duties.”
Penetration in no way represents the gamut of ways in which a person can be sexually assaulted — meaning, the Michigan legislation lacks both the teeth to revoke officer immunity in such cases, as well as the spirit of protection for sex workers in which such a law should be enacted.
McNeill continues,
“In this respect, Michigan’s status quo closely resembles one in Hawaii which scandalized reporters and readers three years ago. The legislature tried to repeal a 1970s-era immunity clause for cops engage in prostitution investigations. The police union argued vociferously against the reform, just as they are doing now in Alaska, before eventually dropping their opposition in the face of a tide of popular condemnation. Yet despite that resemblance, most treatments of the Alaskan law don’t bother to mention the Hawaiian one.”
Broadly reported on the apparent epidemic of officers having coercive, investigative, and even forced sex with prostitutes, noting,
“A research study that [Dr. Alexandra Lutnick] conducted in San Francisco found that over 14 percent of sex workers said that they had been threatened with arrest unless they had sex with a police officer, and two percent had been arrested after having sex with an officer anyway.
“Astonishingly, it’s not specifically illegal for police officers in many states to have sex with sex workers during the course of sting operations.”
Lutnick lamented, “The reality of some police having sex with sex workers during the course of undercover operations has been in existence as long as selling sex has been a criminal offense.”
Sex worker activists and their supporters condemn the lack of protections and the dearth of accurate reporting on the issue — particularly as the corporate press largely repeats bloviating from police departments on the putative need for officer sexual contact.
Whether or not Alaska and Michigan, or any other state, will make strides to protect sex workers — who, after all, are citizens deserving of the same protections as ordinary citizens — remains to be seen.
In the interim, sex workers will be doubly victimized by a system protecting the authority of officers over their right not to be groped, assaulted, or raped.
“For police officers to go so far as to have sexual contact with people as a means to gather evidence and arrest them and charge them — it’s just not necessary,” argues Maxine Doogan, an advocate with Community United for Safety and Protection, an Alaska sex-worker advocacy group.
“It’s state-sponsored sexual assault.”
Johnson County, AR — Former deputy Robert Retford, with the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department was arrested last November on charges of sexual assault. His alleged victim was apparently seeking help from the deputy when she said he beat her, raped her and defecated on her, and made her drink his urine. This month, Retford pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the woman and will not spend a single day in jail.
The blue privilege plea deal was negotiated last week and for admitting to the heinous crimes against his victim, he was only sentenced to six months probation — no jail.
The local news outlet stated they do not give out the names of alleged victims. However, this case was different. According to 40/29 News, in this case, the woman asked to be identified and wants everyone to know what she says the deputy did to her.
In their report on the incident, 40/29 referred to the victim as Shanna.
“This man raped me,” Shanna said.
In September 2016, police responded to a domestic dispute between Shanna and her boyfriend. According to Shanna, Retford offered to take her away from the situation, so she got in his car with him. Shanna told investigators that while the couple was in the car, Retford began fondling her crotch and then made her touch his crotch.
Despite the crotch touching in the car, Shanna said she was brought to a hotel in Clarksville that evening and dropped off by Retford who did not stay there. Instead, Retford gave the stranded and allegedly recently sexually assaulted victim his card and told her to call him in the morning.
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Apparently frozen with fear, Shanna stayed at the hotel and then called the deputy in the morning at which time Retford picked her up.
Shanna told police that Retford then brought her to a friend’s house where he proceeded to beat her with either a baton or flashlight.
“After that,” Shanna explained, “he made me drink his urine. He told me to enjoy being covered in his piss, that’s what he said.”
“I think he’s scary, it scares me just talking about him,” Shanna said.
In an interview with 40/29 News, Shanna told them she was on drugs when the assault happened and she does not remember if she told the deputy to stop.
“I don’t know, I guess I just kind of froze up,” Shanna said. “I don’t think I said anything, I don’t think I could speak, I don’t know.”
According to Johnson County Sheriff Larry Jones, Retford was immediately suspended in September after the incident was reported. However, he resigned just four days later, a move many police officers take when accused of a crime in a means to escape accountability — and escape accountability he did.
When the Free Thought Project reported this story last year, Retford was facing up to 10 years in prison. However, because the system of justice in America is broken, Retford is a free man.
Compare Retford’s case to a recent sentence handed down to a man in Louisiana for possessing cannabis and you’ll see just how corrupt and broken the system actually is. While Retford will avoid prison for beating, raping, and urinating on a woman, Gary Howard was convicted of “marijuana possession with intent to distribute” and a Caddo parish judge handed down an 18-year sentence — a year for each gram of cannabis.
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Police officers showing up to help people and assaulting them instead is a far too common occurrence as well as escaping with little to no punishment.
After an unnamed victim had been beaten by a male assailant late last year, who she had a restraining order against, she called the police. When police showed up, they arrested her attacker and left. However, hours later, Cpl. Benjamin Candelaria, 48, would return, cover his body camera, and sexually assault the victim, according to the arrest report.
Former state trooper, 36-year-old Samuel H. McHenry II managed to get off with minimal jail time after raping a car accident victim and leaving her stranded afterward.
Officer Micah Meurer responded to a call at a 22-year-old woman’s northwest Amarillo home last year when she was in distress. The officer was later fired after it was exposed that Meurer forced himself on her and raped her.
Karl Fields, a police officer from Chattanooga, Tennessee was accused of sexually harassing and stalking a rape victim that he claimed to be helping with a criminal case.
Fields reportedly stalked the woman, parking out in front of her house on numerous occasions, and contacting her on a frequent basis.
According to a lawsuit recently filed by the victim, Fields attempted to call her 73 times in one night, and would frequently text her, requesting nude photographs and making obscene demands.
MANHATTAN (CN) — A former police officer who raped a New York City schoolteacher in broad daylight drew no sympathy from New York’s highest court, which unanimously affirmed his 75-to-life sentence on Valentine’s Day.
Michael Pena, now 32, had been off-duty on the morning of Aug. 19, 2011, when he pulled his loaded and police-issued gun on a young woman. The 25-year-old was on her way to her first day of teaching in the Bronx, when Pena pulled her into the courtyard of an Inwood apartment building and raped her.
Prosecutors broke down Pena’s assault into three separate offenses in his indictment, with each carrying a 25-year sentence.
Pena appealed to the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, after a lower court upheld his sentence in 2015, rejecting the ex-cop’s claim that this punishment was unfairly multiplied.
Pena’s lawyer Ephraim Savitt has emphasized that his client’s penalty is 63 years longer than the average rape sentence. “If that disparity is not cruel and unusual, then perhaps there’s no purpose to having the Eighth Amendment on the books any more,” Savitt said in a phone interview on Tuesday.
In unanimously upholding Pena’s sentence this morning, the Court of Appeals noted that the Pena’s counsel did not invoke alleged violations of U.S. and New York Constitutions.
“Although defendant generally objected to the length of the sentence before the sentencing court, arguing that the sentence was draconian, he did not alert the court to his constitutional argument,” Judge Sheila Abdus-Salaam wrote for the six-judge court.
“Thus, the sentencing court was never given an opportunity to address any of the constitutional challenges that defendant now lodges with this court,” she added.
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Chief Judge Janet DiFiore joined the ruling, as did Judges Jenny Rivera, Leslie Stein, Eugene Fahey and Michael Garcia.
Attorney Savitt bristled at this reasoning. “The Sixth Amendment now takes precedence over weight to give to it than the Eighth Amendment,” he said in an interview.
Another sentencing disparity in Pena’s case involves that between the average U.S. sentence as opposed to other advanced nations.
Marc Mauer, the executive director of the advocacy group Sentencing Project, surprised many in congressional testimony last year by proposing an upper limit of no more than 20 years – barring “exceptional circumstances” – in the federal sentencing structure.
That Pena had been a police officer when he committed his horrific crime likely contributed to his heavy sentence, but Pavitt asserted that international politics may have played a role as well.
Just days after Pena’s attack, New York City prosecutors were forced to withdraw charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn because of evidence discrediting the hotel maid whom the then-director of the International Monetary Fund director had allegedly raped.
Activists accused Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance at the time of blaming the victim.
Savitt suggested that this political climate created a tough posture in prosecuting his client, though this argument did not come up in Pena’s appeal.
Judge Rowan Wilson did not take part in the decision as he only joined the court in January.
Judge Abdus-Salaam is the first Muslim woman to sit on the state’s highest court.
El Paso, TX — “Isolated incident,” “a few bad apples” — these are just some of the terms used to downplay occurrences of police misconduct. “This officer is not representative of all police,” we are told when a serial rapist cop is exposed. However, when looking at actual numbers, these incidents appear to be anything but isolated. Two recent police officer arrests last week in El Paso, Texas — both for sexual assault — back this point up quite powerfully.
Last Friday morning, a four-year veteran with the El Paso Police Department was arrested on sexual assault charges. According to the charges, while officer Brian Michael Lujan was out protecting and serving the citizens of El Paso, he was also raping them.
According to officials, Lujan’s charges and subsequent arrest stem from the rape of three separate victims who were all attacked by Lujan while he was on-duty.
According to KVIA:
The investigation stemmed from a complaint alleging criminal conduct that was filed with EPPD’s Internal Affairs Division..
Officials said two separate investigations were conducted: a Criminal Investigation by the Special Investigations Unit, and an administrative investigation by the Internal Affairs Division.
During the criminal investigation, the Department requested the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation(F.B.I.).
The multi-agency investigations took five months to complete and shortly after 8 a.m. on Friday, police moved in to arrest their fellow officer. Lujan is currently being held on a $325,000 bond.
On top of the charge for sexual assault, Lujan was also charged with two counts of Invasive Visual Recording. The details regarding the charges have been kept from the public. However, police are asking anyone with information regarding these cases to call the El Paso Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division at (915) 212-0157.
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While Lujan’s case sounds terrible by itself, his arrest is the second one within just a few days from the El Paso Police Department.
Two days before one accused rapist cop was taken off the street, another alleged sexual predator was also arrested — this time for the sexual assault of a child.
Last Wednesday, according to KVIA, detectives with the police department’s Crimes Against Children Unit arrested 46-year-old Juan Carlos Gardea, a 19-year veteran of the police department, and charged him with Sexual Assault of a Child.
Four days before arresting Gardea, his child victim came forward with the details of the alleged sexual assault.
According to the affidavit, Gardea got into bed with his victim and another small boy and began groping her buttocks and breasts.
According to Delaware Online, the complaint describes in graphic detail what the girl told investigators about how Gardea allegedly fondled and molested her, including that she was forced to inappropriately touch Gardea, who also allegedly attempted to rape her. It does not disclose what the boy was doing at the time of the alleged assault.
Immediately after it happened, the alleged victim bravely came forward to report it. The girl was interviewed by detectives specially trained in child physical and sexual abuse, the document states.
Gardea will be spared the public embarrassment of having his mugshot released, as his undercover work could potentially be compromised.
As the Free Thought Project has reported numerous times, sexual misconduct among police officers is uncomfortably common. While there hasn’t been a study showing the abuse in at least two years, the most recent numbers from 2015 paint a disturbing picture.
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In a yearlong investigation of sexual misconduct by U.S. law enforcement, The Associated Press uncovered about 1,000 officers who lost their badges in a six-year period for rape, sodomy and other sexual assault, sex crimes that included possession of child pornography, or sexual misconduct such as propositioning citizens or having consensual but prohibited on-duty intercourse.
The most disturbing aspect of that investigation is the fact that the number, according to the AP, is unquestionably an undercount because it represents only those officers whose licenses to work in law enforcement were revoked, and not all states take such action. California and New York — with several of the nation’s largest law enforcement agencies — offered no records because they have no statewide system to decertify officers for misconduct. And even among states that provided records, some reported no officers removed for sexual misdeeds even though cases were identified via news stories or court records.
“It’s happening probably in every law enforcement agency across the country,” said Chief Bernadette DiPino of the Sarasota Police Department in Florida, who helped study the problem for the International Association of Chiefs of Police. “It’s so underreported and people are scared that if they call and complain about a police officer, they think every other police officer is going to be then out to get them.”
MILWAUKEE (CN) – Milwaukee’s failure to remove a rapist from its police force will cost the city $2.5 million in a civil settlement, according to a letter from the city attorney.
Iema Lemons sued the city, the police chief and Ladmarald Cates, a former officer who is now serving a 24-year federal prison term for violently raping her after she called to report vandalism to her home, the 2013 complaint states.
Although Cates was the subject of multiple complaints regarding his on- and off-duty behavior, prior to July 16, 2010, the date of Lemons’ rape, he was not removed from the force and remained in daily contact with the public while performing his duties.
Complaints against Cates included a domestic violence arrest for choking and pushing his girlfriend, who was also a police officer, and accusations of sexual misconduct made in 2005 against Cates by a female inmate.
Cates was again accused of sexual misconduct in 2007 after a woman arrested for theft claimed he had sex with her in a jail cell after promising he would get her released if she complied. Her case was eventually closed without proper investigation, Lemons claims in her suit.
Lemons asserts in her lawsuit that Cates qualified as a sexual predator, since the first allegation involved a female inmate who was severely intoxicated and the second involved one who was clearly mentally ill, and that “Sex with a prisoner constitutes criminal sexual assault.”
Also in 2007, Cates was accused of sexual misconduct while on duty, this time with a minor, but again the witness was considered unreliable. Police Chief Edward Flynn, who had by then replaced the former chief, admitted while being deposed that the allegations against Cates were “disturbing,” but did nothing to discipline him.
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When officers responded to Lemons’ call in 2010, they did not address her complaints of bricks being thrown through her window, the complaint states. Instead, they arrested her brother, and while he and Cates’ partner was in the squad car, Cates cornered Lemons in her bathroom.
Cates was armed when he repeatedly ordered Lemons to perform oral sex on him.
“She was afraid he would kill her if she did not comply with his demand and that, as a police officer any story he invented to cover such use of force would be believed,” the complaint states.
While he forced Lemons to perform oral sex, Cates “shov[ed] his fingers into her vagina,” then strangled her as he forced his penis inside her vagina, according to the complaint.
After she collapsed on the porch following the rape, the officers arrested her, falsely claiming she had assaulted Cates’ partner. On the way to the police station, officers ignored her repeated requests for help and claims she had been raped.
When she arrived, Lemons was handcuffed to a table, and Cates was allowed to enter the room, according to the complaint.
“Cates threatened Iema that other police officers would attack her if she continued to claim she had been raped,” the complaint states. “He also told her that, if she withdrew her claim, she would only get a ticket for her alleged criminal conduct…Cates told her that, even if she continued to say he raped her, he would only get suspended.”
Though that had been the case in the past, this time Flynn fired Cates for his sexual misconduct, albeit five months after the rape.
READ MORE: Innocent Unarmed Man Shot in the Head While Asking Cops for Help has to Sue to Get Justice
During an internal affairs investigation that followed Lemons’ rape accusation, Cates lied and said he had no sexual contact with Lemons, but later changed his story and admitted to on-duty sexual contact, claiming it was consensual.
Though the Milwaukee County district attorney declined to pursue charges, the U.S. Department of Justice took up the case, resulting in a 24-year prison sentence for Cates in 2012.
Deputy City Attorney Miriam Horwitz, who frequently handles police misconduct claims against the city, has asked the Milwaukee Common Council to approve a $2.5 million settlement in Lemons’ civil suit, which will absolve all parties in the case.
“As the matter proceeded to the January 9, 2017 trial date, mediation resulted in a proposed settlement of 2.5 million dollars, inclusive of all claims for damages against all parties, and inclusive of attorney fees and costs,” Horwitz’ Jan. 13 letter states. “The City Attorney now recommends settlement of this matter for the total sum of $2.5 million as recommended by the magistrate judge.”
A voicemail left with the Office of the City Attorney before business hours Tuesday was not immediately returned.
Lemons’ attorneys declined to comment.
Fort Pierce, FL — For the majority of people who see those red and blue lights turn on behind them as they drive down the highway, your adrenaline spikes, your heart races, and the last thing going through your mind is, “I am being protected right now.” While most of these stops end with a promissory note of extortion for a victimless crime, sometimes, especially for women, things can get quite dangerous.
As the Free Thought Project has reported countless times, all too often, police officers will abuse their authority to force unwilling victims into performing sexual favors in exchange for leniency. Also, many times, there is no quid pro quo and police officers will simply rape people they pull over — case in point, Daniel Holtzclaw.
A young Florida woman has learned the hard way about police rape last week when she was stopped by St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Deputy, Evan Cramer, 28.
According to Sheriff Ken Mascara, Cramer pulled over his latest victim last Tuesday night for a minor traffic violation. However, instead of simply writing a ticket and moving on, Cramer proceeded to use his authority to rape this woman.
Cramer is accused of telling the victim she had multiple warrants out for her arrest and said she could avoid jail time if she granted sexual favors, Mascara said.
According to police, Cramer then kidnapped his victim, threw her in the back of his cruiser, drove her to a vacant car lot, and raped her.
Immediately after it happened, his frightened victim then went to the local hospital to report she’d been raped.
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“She was terrified,” said Sheriff Ken Mascara. “You could hear it in her voice. You could see it. It was palpable.”
Cramer was arrested the next morning after a brief investigation. He was charged with sexual assault/battery and unlawful compensation, the sheriff’s department said. He is currently being held on a $850,000 bond.
Mascara told the media last week that it is, indeed, likely, that Cramer had done this before and urged any potential victims to come forward.
“He made comments to this victim that support that he’s done this in the past,” the sheriff said. “He actually compared her to other victims. It’s apparent there are some other victims out there, based on his own statements.”
“During a time in our nation when respect for law enforcement is at an all-time high, incidents such as this quickly erode that trust and respect,” Mascara said. “I want to apologize to our community and other members of the law enforcement family for the dishonorable actions of this one person.”
While this apology sounds okay, perhaps Mascara should apologize for hiring this officer with such a troubled past in the first place. After the arrest, WPBF looked into Cramer’s past — what they found was trouble.
As WPFB reports:
We’ve obtained Cramer’s personnel file for when he worked for the Sandford Police Department. He started there in March of 2015 and in January of 2016, three of his superiors recommended to the chief that Cramer be fired.
A Lieutenant in the department cited multiple reasons for the recommendation, including “using inappropriate language in public” and “using his authority to gain compliance.”
Cramer resigned from the department in January before he was fired.
Less than four months later, he was hired at the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office.
San Antonio, TX — (RT) A Texas law enforcement officer has been arrested for the repeated sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl over a period of several months.
Jesus Gonzalez, 42, is accused of having sexual relations with his girlfriend’s 13-year-old daughter. He was arrested Tuesday and charged with a first-degree felony of continuous sexual abuse of a child.
SAPD Sex Crimes Unit investigation: Jesus Gonzalez, law enforcement officer w/ unnamed agency, accused of continuous sex abuse-child. pic.twitter.com/vvyODBvWs7
— darlene dorsey (@darlenedorseyTV) December 29, 2016
According to an arrest warrant cited by KENS, the girl told investigators that Gonzalez had engaged in sexual intercourse with her over 20 times between September and mid-December. Gonzalez even told the girl that he wanted to marry her, despite being in a relationship with her mother for more than a year and a half.
According to the affidavit, the mother first found out about the sexual abuse when she saw a lewd picture on her daughter’s cell phone. She soon discovered her daughter had been texting these photos with Gonzalez at his request.
Gonzalez was reportedly armed and in his police uniform when he was arrested.
In a press conference covered by the local news station, Elmendorf Police Chief Marco Pena confirmed that Gonzalez was a reserve officer in his department since October. Upon being arrested, Gonzalez immediately resigned.
At the press conference, Elmendorf Police Chief Marco Peña said he was “saddened and appalled” by Gonzales’ arrest. “Unfortunately sometimes we don’t know what individuals–what’s in their minds and their hearts sometimes.”
In addition, local news outlet KSAT reports county officials have confirmed Gonzalez previously worked as a law enforcement officer for Bexar County Juvenile Detention Center, the Alamo Colleges, and the Natalia police departments, over the past 18 years. They also cite Texas Commission on Law Enforcement records which show Gonzalez had completed the sexual assault and child abuse training courses that his department requires.
Gonzalez is currently awaiting Indictment at the Bexar County Jail in San Antonio, Texas, with a $75,000 bond.
Monterey County, CA — A highly decorated officer was arrested last week on a slew of horrific charges all involving forced sex with children. Presidio of Monterey police officer Barney Joseph Ramnauth had the entire community fooled.
According to the Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s Office, last week, Ramnauth was arrested on suspicion of sodomizing a child younger than 10 years and a slew of other alleged sexual acts, some forced, with a child nearly two decades ago.
On top of the District Attorney’s Office, the Superior Court records show that Ramnauth was also arrested on suspicion of forced acts with a child younger than 14; and aggravated assault-child sexual acts.
According to Assistant District Attorney Steve Moore, Ramnauth, 48, is an officer at the Army installation. Two years ago, this suspected child rapist was awarded the Monterey County Peace Officers Association highest honor, Officer of the Year.
While the warrant for Ramnauth’s arrest was issued on December 1, there is no record of his arrest in court documents or an online inmate locator, according to Mercury News.
According to the California penal code, Ramnauth faces the potential of life in prison for the minimum of seven felonies of which he stands accused stemming back from as far as 1998.
According to the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Sgt. Chris Clark, spokesman for Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office, said the agency is investigating.
Officers of the year, as the Free Thought Project has pointed out time and again, raping, murdering, and molesting, is nothing new.
In May, in an unprecedented sentence for a police officer, a former cop with the Fort Pierce and Port St. Lucie police departments, was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of child exploitation. Micheal Edwin Harding was named Officer of the Year in 2011, when he was an officer at the Fort Pierce Police Department.
Despite being accused of sexual assault back in 2007, Champaign Police Officer Jerad Gale was given his department’s highest honor in March. On March 30, Gale was named Champaign’s Officer of the Year.
Just three months later he would be arrested for strangling and raping two more women.
A former Houston Police Department ‘Officer of the Year’ award winner, Noe Juarez, was arrested last year and was indicted on federal charges of conspiracy to possess firearms connected with a drug trafficking offense and conspiracy to distribute five or more kilos of cocaine.
Jonathan Bleiweiss, 34, pleaded guilty to an array of charges last year, admitting to 14 counts of armed false imprisonment, 15 counts of battery and four counts of stalking. However, he avoided all of the charges with “sex” in them.
Most likely due to his police officer status, this former Broward Sheriff’s deputy was given an insultingly lenient plea deal. As part of that deal, Bleiweiss did not face charges of sexual battery, and as such will not be required by the state of Florida to register as a sex offender.
A group of approximately 20 undocumented immigrants alleged that Bleiweiss, harassed them, molested them during pat-downs, and threatened them with deportation if they refused to perform sex acts. Bleiweiss was named officer of the year just prior to being exposed as a sexual predator.
As the Free Thought Project reported last November, an investigation by the AP revealed around 1,000 policemen across the US had their licenses revoked and lost their jobs over the last six years on account of numerous sexual offenses that included rape and possession of child pornography.
The probe revealed that 550 officers were decertified for various sexual assaults, including rape. Some were dismissed for sodomy or sexual shakedowns, where victims were forced to perform sexual acts to avoid arrest.
A further 440 officers lost their jobs for other sex-related offenses, such as possessing child pornography, being a peeping Tom, sending sexually charged messages to underage teens or having sex while on duty.
About one-third of the officers lost their jobs for committing sexual offenses with juveniles.
The real number of sexual offenses could, however, be much higher, as AP only looked into registered cases where an officer lost their badge because of an offense. Lawyers and police chiefs acknowledged that some departments let the sexual assaults slide to limit their liability, allowing their staff to quietly resign or transfer to other duty stations or departments.
Furthermore, the probe notes that not all decertified officers faced criminal charges as some policemen surrendered their badges voluntarily to avoid a potential scandal.
Galveston, TX — A Galveston Independent School District police officer, whose job was to protect students as they attended class, was arrested this week for sexually assaulting a child — possibly more than one.
Officer Victor Lee Cervantes, 30, was arrested this week after his supervisors discovered that he was having inappropriate relationships with one or more students. On Wednesday, Cervantes was charged with sexual assault of a child, two counts of improper relationship between an educator and student and online solicitation of a minor.
Apparently, his abuse was so rampant that other ISD officers noticed it and reported him to their supervisors.
According to the school superintendent, Kelli Moulton, Cervantes has been placed on administrative leave following the accusations.
Police also said that Cervantes was accused of engaging in sexual acts with at least one female child on two separate occasions. He was also caught sending sexually explicit text messages to another child, according to police.
According to the Galveston Daily News, Cervantes has since resigned and the charges are under investigation, Moulton said.
“We take this matter very seriously, and we are deeply concerned that it appears something of this nature and this seriousness has happened at one of our schools and to one of our students,” Moulton said in a news release.
Cervantes is currently in jail while being held on a bond of $35,000.
According to the Daily News, Galveston ISD board of trustees honored Cervantes for saving a student’s life during a council meeting in 2012, according to a news release on the school district’s website.
Unfortunately, school cops betraying their trust and assaulting those they are tasked with protecting is an all too common occurrence. With such a massive dependency on police in public education, this is to be expected.
As the Free Thought Project previously reported, according to statistics released by the U.S. Department of Education and published by NBC News, in the 2011-2012 school year, teachers called the cops on students a total of 31,961 times in the state of California alone, leading to 6,341 arrests.
At one California school district, in particular, East Side Union High School District in San Jose, police were called on students 1,745 times during the 2011-2012 school year. This one school called the police on students more than ten times a day!
Earlier this year, we reported on the video showing a San Antonio Independent School District police officer body slam a 12-year-old girl. In February, the Free Thought Project brought you the story of the Baltimore School cop who was seen beating a student who had done nothing wrong.
In fact, recent videos have revealed a myriad of school cops attacking unarmed students. In December, Officer Rigo Valles was cleared of any wrongdoing after grabbing a student by the neck and slamming him to the floor. In October, Richland County Deputy Ben Fields was fired after students recorded him flipping over a girl’s desk and dragging her across the floor. Oklahoma City Master Sgt. Thomas Jaha was charged with assault and battery in October as well, after repeatedly punching a student in the face for not having a hall pass.
Last November, prosecutors agreed to dismiss assault charges against Louisville Metro Police Officer Jonathan Hardin for punching a student in the face if the former officer completes anger management classes. Hardin still faces wanton endangerment, official misconduct, and assault charges for choking another student unconscious in a separate incident five days later. In separate incidents earlier this year, school cops have also been caught attacking an autistic boy, body-slamming a child, and raping nearly two dozen students.
And these are the ones the public knows about — How many more incidents, just like this one, go unreported and unpunished?
Pueblo, CO — A domestic violence victim has found out the hard way that calling 911 for help is a crap shoot. After an unnamed victim had been beaten by a male assailant, who she had a restraining order against, she called the police. When police showed up, they arrested her attacker and left. However, hours later, Cpl. Benjamin Candelaria, 48, would return, cover his body camera, and sexually assault the victim, according to a recent arrest report.
On Friday, Pueblo police arrested one of their own after he was was accused of sexually assaulting the victim he was supposed to be helping.
According to KOAA, officer Candelaria, along with other Pueblo officers, were called to a report of domestic violence between a man and a woman early Thursday morning. After a brief investigation, the officers arrested the man on domestic violence and violation of a protective order charges. Court documents say all of the officers left the residence, but Candelaria returned shortly thereafter to finish paperwork.
According to the arrest report, ‘paperwork’ was the last thing on Candelaria’s mind. The next day, the woman went to Parkview Hospital and claimed that she’d been sexually assaulted by a police officer. However, her memory was limited because she’d been hit in the head with a wrench, beaten, knocked unconscious, and was intoxicated.
Amazingly enough, the Pueblo police department immediately opened an investigation and pulled officer Candelaria’s body camera footage. Police quickly found that the body camera footage corroborated the victim’s story.
The footage showed Candelaria showing up the to victim’s residence, after the call was over, and then initiating a sexual conversation with the heavily intoxicated woman. According to the police record, Candelaria turned off his body camera for approximately 15 minutes.
In some of the footage, according to the police report, Candelaria is seen in the woman’s dark bedroom, standing over her bed as she lay there unconscious. The woman remains unresponsive as Candelaria calls out her name.
At one point during the interaction, the woman is crying and naked from the waist down, according to the arrest report. Investigators also noted that when Candelaria’s body camera was actually on, he repeatedly turned it away to conceal his actions.
According to the vehicle location records, investigators found that Candelaria returned to the woman’s home a third time at approximately 6:45 am. This stop was made after Candelaria’s shift had ended.
The next day, Pueblo police brought Candelaria upstairs, read him his Miranda rights and sat him down for questioning. He initially denied all contact. However, after telling Candelaria that they had evidence to the contrary, he admitted to sexually touching the woman — and noted that what he had done was wrong.
Before investigators asked him, Candelaria claimed that he would have semen in his underwear, not from sexually assaulting a domestic violence victim, but from having sex with his wife prior to the call.
Candelaria has since been arrested and charged with sexual assault. He has also been placed on administrative leave.
Police officers showing up to help people and assaulting them instead is a far too common occurrence.
Former state trooper, 36-year-old Samuel H. McHenry II managed to get off with minimal jail time after raping a car accident victim and leaving her stranded afterward.
Officer Micah Meurer responded to a call at a 22-year-old woman’s northwest Amarillo home last year when she was in distress. The officer was later fired after it was exposed that Meurer forced himself on her and raped her.
Karl Fields, a police officer from Chattanooga, Tennessee was accused of sexually harassing and stalking a rape victim that he claimed to be helping with a criminal case.
Fields reportedly stalked the woman, parking out in front of her house on numerous occasions, and contacting her on a frequent basis.
According to a lawsuit recently filed by the victim, Fields attempted to call her 73 times in one night, and would frequently text her, requesting nude photographs and making obscene demands.
Santa Rosa County, FL — Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) Agent Charles Calvin McMullen was arrested this week after two 8-year-old boys came forward with allegations that the cop repeatedly sodomized and sexually abused them.
According to police, the boys disclosed their information separately and did not know the other was coming forward.
#BREAKING: #FDLE agent, Charles C. McMullen arrested, charged with sexual assault/battery on a victim younger than 12 y/o. #C3N #NWFL
— WEAR ABC 3 (@weartv) November 2, 2016
McMullen, who has been with the FDLE for five years, worked on cases with the Gulf Coast Kids House and the Santa Rosa Kids House, centers that advocate for abused children.
McMullen’s position in law enforcement allowed him easy and trusted access to the children and he was able to repeatedly rape the young boys from the time they were only 7-years-old.
The first boy came forward on October 28 to deputies with the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office (SRCSO). After the 8-year-old reported McMullen had been touching him “downstairs on his private part” on a frequent basis, an investigation was launched which led to the other boy coming forward.
According to a report from WEAR,
The child said the abuse began when both children were 7-years-old. He said McMuMullen made them perform sex acts like sticking their fingers in his buttocks, putting their mouth on his penis.
The victim also said McMullen put his penis in the other child’s buttocks at least four times, the last time being October 27. He also disclosed that McMullen made him touch the other victim’s penis.
The first child’s interview detailing McMullen’s abuse mirrored the second child’s. He said some of it happened at McMullen’s home.
The first victim said when he told McMullen he didn’t like to be touched that way, McMullen would stop. However, he’d make the second victim rub his penis.
When McMullen was confronted by investigators, he reportedly began to cry and then denied touching the children sexually.
One of the boys told police that the abuse went on for so long because he was afraid to come forward because McMullen told him not to tell anyone.
He said McMullen told him this was “between you and me” and not to tell anybody because it would break up his relationship, according to the report.
In July of this year, ABC 3 actually interviewed McMullen who was investigating a man for driving around town and exposing himself to little boys.
“There was a residence in Milton that was sharing images and videos of child pornography through their social media platform,” said McMullen in July, likely admiring his fellow sicko. “Mr. Braswell indicated that he did have a sexual attraction towards children. And that he, in the past, had driven around neighborhoods in the Milton community and would expose himself to children as they would walk down the street,” McMullen said.
Since his arrest, McMullen’s bond was set at $1.5 million. However, on Wednesday that amount was reduced to only $300,000. McMullen is currently still receiving his paycheck while on administrative leave.
Milwaukee, WI — When Sylville Smith, 23, was shot and killed at a traffic stop by police on Aug. 16th in broad daylight in Milwaukee, WI, his homicide set off violent riots which lasted for days, destroying property, and injuring several other police officers in the process. Dozens were arrested, and the National Guard was called in before order was eventually restored.
At the time of the killing, Sherelle Smith (sister), questioned her brother’s slaying, and openly wondered if the police officer who killed her brother, Dominique Heaggan-Brown, 24, had killed her brother out of jealousy, as the two personally knew each other having grown up attending the same high school.
Smith’s claim her brother was killed by a jealous peace officer, will now have to be revisited, as the man responsible for killing her brother, Heaggan-Brown, has been arrested, but not for Smith’s death. On the contrary, Heaggan-Brown was arrested and charged with felony rape of another man.
The alleged rape occurred on Sunday, the day after Heaggan-Brown had been placed on mandatory leave of duty, pursuant to the officer-involved shooting investigation. Heaggan-Brown met up with the victim, who said he met through Facebook. The two had for drinks at a bar and watched television news coverage of the riots for which the officer’s actions were responsible. According to The Washington Post, the victim said the officer of the peace was, bragging, “about being able to do whatever [he] wanted without repercussions.” After drinking for about an hour-and-a-half, the two men left together, according to the criminal complaint’s citation of security footage.
The victim alleges that Heaggan-Brown must have drugged him, because what he remembers is waking up to the police officer sodomizing him. After attempting to move away, he was reportedly told “no” and wasn’t allowed to do so.
After the rape concluded, the police officer then drove the victim to the hospital at 4:16 am, and reportedly told hospital staff the victim “began to act weird and unresponsive” while the two were at the bar. After staying only 20 minutes, Heaggan-Brown then left the hospital and the victim in the care of the emergency room personnel.
According to the police investigation into the rape allegations, the victim “exhibited signs of trauma” during the police detective’s interview. As a result, a criminal investigation of officer Heaggan-Brown was launched and turned up some very incriminating evidence.
Apparently knowing he was guilty of rape, the alleged rapist then texted Sgt. Joseph Hall, his police mentor, describing his involvement into, “a separate situation” and saying he had goofed up, “big time.” He asked his mentor to help him “handle this [situation in] the most secret and right way possible.” Heaggan-Brown met Hall to discuss the situation in which he described having “consensual sex” with the victim but stated, the victim “was drunk and had ‘medical issues.’”
A week went by before investigators contacted Heaggan-Brown, but when they did they confiscated his phone and searched his home, turning up photos of other sex acts with other men (on the phone) and locating the victim’s shirt, belt, and cell phone in the officer’s car. According to the Post, “While searching Heaggan-Brown’s phone after the initial complaint, authorities then said they discovered evidence he had tried to offer two other people money for sex. They also found images of what the complaint stated were nude photos of another person, some showing sexual contact. This person told police they did not consent to any sexual contact or the nude photos, the complaint stated.”
Heaggan-Brown, Sylville Smith’s killer and now alleged rapist, faces up to 40 years in prison and 100,000 dollars in fines. “In addition to the assault charges, Heaggan-Brown has also been charged with two counts of prostitution, a misdemeanor, and a felony count of taking a nude photo of someone without their consent,” according to the Post. He pleaded not guilty in court Thursday, to the misdemeanors, and has been suspended with pay, even though he has also been charged internally by police for having violated the department’s code of conduct.
The investigation into Smith’s murder, and Heaggan-Brown’s rape charges, are being treated as two separate investigations.
Sylville Smith’s killing was vehemently justified by Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke who claimed Smith would likely still be alive had he been in jail where he belonged. Clarke said Smith was given “light sanctions” for his lengthy criminal record.
But Smith’s cousin says he was constantly being profiled by police, and even more so after Smith won a harassment lawsuit against the police. His family contends Smith was a lawful concealed carry permit holder, who was shot in the back as he ran from authorities. They also maintain he ran from police because he had already spent 10 months in jail for a crime which they say was later dismissed. “He is not a felon. If he was a felon, he would never have been able to get the CCW,” his cousin stated.
And now it’s too late. Smith is dead, and the police officer involved in his homicide is now behind bars, awaiting trial, not for killing another black man, but for the felonious rape of another man, prostitution, and felony possession of nude photos taken without the victim’s consent.
When will the police start to listen to the community? Smith’s sister Sherelle knew something was wrong. She knew the man who killed her brother had a beef that went all the way back to high school.
Maybe if they’ll start to listen and open a dialog, instead of immediately defending their boys in blue, printing out the victim’s rap sheet, and cranking up their public relation’s spin machine, something could be done to change the fear currently being felt in communities across the country.
