“We’re going to ask the judge to make sure that this defendant never sees the light of day”, District Attorney David Prater said.
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The former Oklahoma City police officer convicted of sexually assaulting eight African-American women, while he was on duty, chose his targets carefully, an attorney for some of the victims said Friday.
Holtzclaw’s case started with a report from a grandma who said he pressured her to perform oral sex in a traffic stop. He questioned several women at length about whether they were high at the time, and noted that most didn’t come forward until investigators identified them as possible victims.
He said, ‘No, really, I’m serious. I still live with this day after day.
“No nurses came to check on me”, she said through tears.
There are, of course, many police officers who do their work well with respect and responsibility to the people they serve. At least 13 rapes of underprivileged black women.
Holtzclaw, whose father is white and mother is Japanese, is identified as “Asian or Pacific Islander” by court records. All of his victims were black.
While advocates and attorneys said they were pleased with the guilty verdicts, they said full justice had not been achieved. From the fact that media coverage for missing white women far outstrips that of nonwhite women to the fact that authorities can be openly dismissive of harm or danger to women of color, it’s not surprising that many women of color believe that their safety is not a priority.
“I tried to look up [at] his name, I was afraid to because I said, ‘If I know his name, I know he’s going to kill me, ‘” she said. Onlookers clapped at the remark.
For each of the 36 counts, the jurors, who were all white, were tasked with both determining the verdict and, in the case of a guilty verdict, recommending a sentence.
Holtzclaw could face more than 260 years in prison when sentenced next month.
Benjamin L. Crump, a lawyer representing five of the 13 women, said at a news conference that a civil lawsuit would follow.
Most rapes go unpunished in America, and sex crime convictions are even more unlikely when law enforcement officers are accused, said Kimberly Lonsway, a research director at End Violence Against Women International.
“We are not being rocked to sleep because of this verdict”, Muhammad said. “They’re still dealing with a lot”.
Other accusers told similar accounts of Holtzclaw forcing sex upon them on the threat of arresting them for outstanding warrants or drug possession. She said Holtzclaw picked her up as she walked home one night in June 2014, and then walked her to the porch, where he told her he had to search her. She said he grabbed her breasts, then pulled down her pink shorts and raped her. Her DNA was found on his uniform pants.
Holtzclaw was sacked by the police over the accusations in January 2015 after approximately three years on the job.
A yearlong investigation by the Associated Press published in November found 1,000 officers across the nation who had lost their badges over a six-year period for sexual misconduct that included rape, sodomy, possession of child porn and propositioning citizens. Holtzclaw was found guilty on a number of counts.
All of the women are black.
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In Cosmopolitan, writer Treva Lindsey said the case demonstrated “the unique intersection of racism and sexism in the lives of black women”. Holtzclaw’s family released a statement previous year when this case began: “Witness and officer testimony presented by the prosecution…is based on solicited testimony by the police department of felons, prostitutes and others who would have personal motives beyond the basic truth to fabricate their stories”.
