Judge Timothy Henderson talks to the jury as the verdict is returned in the trial of Daniel Holtzclaw in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015.
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Holtzclaw was charged with 36 counts of rape, forcible oral sodomy, burglary and other charges. A jury recommended that he be sentenced to 263 years in jail. District Attorney David Prater said he will ask for the sentences to be served consecutively.
The mother of a teenager who accused an Oklahoma City police officer of raping her clapped a string of guilty verdicts was announced.
Toni Morrison once commented that racism will be over when a white man is convicted of raping a black woman. Seven armed deputies were stationed around the room.
Lygons said she felt that her life was in danger and thought that if she knew his name, he was going to kill her. “It’s brutal, but I think justice was served”.
Holtzclaw’s case was among those examined in a yearlong Associated Press investigation that revealed about 1,000 officers nationwide had lost their licenses for sex crimes or other sexual misconduct over a six-year period.
“He was aggressive, he was vigilant, and he was honest”, Adams said.
He ran background checks and went after those who had outstanding warrants, previous arrests or carried drugs or drug paraphernalia.
Yet the women assaulted by Holtzclaw courageously walked the tightrope and took the risk, facing their accuser and trusting a system that has failed so many brown women before it.
Prosecutors said Holtzclaw targeted women in a low-income, minority neighborhood.
Holtzclaw’s conviction largely stems from his one “mistake”, as prosecutors put it – the mistake of stopping J.L.
The case against Holtzclaw began after one woman came forward and accused him of “sexual impropriety” during a traffic stop, and it snowballed from there. Often, he would do so by exposing himself through the fly of his police uniform.
Other victims had also said during testimonies that they did not think reporting the matter to police was going to help. The group’s news conference also included attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing five of the victims in the case.
“It is obvious the jury took their responsibilities very seriously and considered every piece of evidence presented to them”, the department said. Another woman admitted on the stand to slipping out of her motel room the night before and procuring marijuana and the hallucinogen PCP.
“He didn’t choose CEOs or soccer moms; he chose women he could count on not telling what he was doing”, McConnell said of the former police officer during the closing arguments of a trial that drew national attention, according to Reuters.
A former Oklahoma cop sobbed in court on Thursday as he was found guilty of sexually assaulting eight women while on duty. “It doesn’t mean they didn’t believe the victims”. Ultimately, that approach did not sway the jury to dismiss all the women’s stories.
All of the women are black.
Holtzclaw, whose father is white and mother is Japanese, is identified as “Asian or Pacific Islander” by court records.
After the verdicts, Prater addressed why the jury of eight men and four women ended up being all white.
“It went like this for the three-dozen charges, while Holtzclaw, the fired police officer, rocked and cried, occasionally putting his head on the table”.
Daniel Holtzclaw, right, looks at the jury as he is escorted from the courtroom after the verdicts in his trial.
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The guilty verdict of Oklahoma City officer Daniel Holtzclaw rendered emotional responses from the victims and their supporters Thursday evening.
