Former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw was sentenced on Thursday to 263 years in prison, the maximum sentence, having been found guilty of four counts of first-degree rape, among many other charges, including second-degree rape and forcible oral sodomy. Holtzclaw was convicted in December of 18 counts of rape, sexual battery, and assorted other crimes after 13 black women testified he’d used his badge to assault them, then intimidate them into silence.
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Prosecutors said Holtzclaw selected victims in one of Oklahoma City’s poorest neighborhoods based on their criminal histories, assuming their drug or prostitution records would undermine any claims they might make against him.
District Judge Timothy Henderson will decide whether Holtzclaw will have to serve the sentences consecutively.
All of the accusers were black. A third, who is a grandmother, said she was forced to do things after Holtzclaw pulled her over, and she later had a stroke.
But the women’s accounts of Holtzclaw’s methods were consistent and strong enough to convince a jury, widely publicized as all-white, that Holtzclaw was guilty of half of the crimes he’d been accused of. Among the evidence presented were Global Positioning System data points from Holtzclaw’s patrol vehicle, which confirmed victims’ accounts of the officer taking them to abandoned schools and other remote locations late at night.
Holtzclaw’s attorney had described the former college football star as a model officer whose attempts to help the drug addicts and prostitutes he came in contact with were distorted.
“I encourage women to come forward and report this and those that are friends of women who may have been victimized to encourage them to come forward”, said Prater.
Prosecutors had three women who testified against Holtzclaw read impact statement about how his actions changed their lives. It wasn’t until June 2014 when a woman identified as J., with the encouragement of her daughter, reported being sexually assaulted by Holtzclaw to police.
“I thought he was going to kill me because I had seen his face and could tell on him and he was an officer and had to know he wasn’t supposed to do this”, she said.
On Wednesday, one day before the scheduled hearing, Holtzclaw’s attorney filed a request seeking a new trial, citing a Facebook post he alleged showed evidence had been withheld.
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The Associated Press last year highlighted Holtzclaw’s case in after an investigation revealed about 1,000 law officers were decertified in a six-year period because of sexual misconduct on the job.
