“All I could think was that he was going to shoot me, he was going to kill me”, Ligons said Friday. “Thank you, sir, for not taking me to jail, ‘” J.L. testified, according to BuzzFeed. You’re going to shoot me’.
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Ligons, a grandmother, added that all she could see was her “life flashing” before her eyes “and the holster” on the officer’s right side. No time to look seriously about the healing process and the steps ahead to make the victims whole.
“We understand that there were other women who called before, whose calls went unanswered”, Crump said, referring to the report to police that resulted in Holtzclaw’s arrest. All of his victims were African American.
“I am ashamed at the lack of coverage”, said Tezlyn Figaro, a former Oklahoma City resident and a media consultant who helped raise the profile of the trial.
Her complaint led to Holtzclaw’s suspension, the same day it was filed. “There are five women who did not receive justice”.
He then forced her into the backseat of his squad vehicle and demanded she perform oral sex on him. “I just couldn’t believe it. I was speechless”. There are several recurring themes throughout their accounts: Most had criminal records, and multiple were sex workers or struggled with substance abuse.
Then, he would subject them to assaults that escalated from groping to oral sodomy and rape. Citing the emotional outburst, authorities put him under a 24-hour watch in jail. In 2012, the trial Marissa Alexander contrasted sharply with trial and acquittal of George Zimmerman for the killing of Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman was acquitted of murder charges in 2013. He’s a police officer.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference earlier this afternoon, Jannie Ligons-the first of the women to report the officer-recalled how Holtzclaw, 26, pulled her over for swerving. He said “the system has a reputation of not being fair”. She was not from the mostly low-income neighborhood where he patrolled. Jurors recommended 263 years, including 30-year sentences for each of four first-degree rape convictions. Formal sentencing is set for next month.
According to NBC News, District Attorney David Prater intends to ask that the sentences be served consecutively. For them it’s about whatever’s going on in the moment.
Holtzclaw was a former star linebacker on the Eastern Michigan University football team with a degree in criminal justice.
The victims said the officer used his police beat to prey on 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”. Black women are especially liable to be their targets.
Holtzclaw, 29, is of mixed race: One parent is Japanese, the other white. “Unfortunately we often hear reports of horrific abuse daily on the national sexual assault hotline”.
But Liggins reported her attack immediately.
Another victim, identified as S.H., said that she was arrested two years ago by Holtzclaw for alleged drug use and taken to a faraway hospital. It also challenged the validity of DNA evidence.
“There has to be a conversation about sexual assault, about rape, and about the specific care that black women and women of color need when these situations happen”, Franklin said.
“It may mean that we didn’t meet our burden (of proof) in those counts”, he said. Holtzclaw did not testify.
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Some women gathered outside the Oklahoma County Courthouse celebrated Holtzclaw’s conviction by mockingly singing “Happy Birthday”, KFOR reported. “It’s not fair to any of the victims or the people of our community”, said Latonya James, a victim’s mother.
