“It’s happening probably in every law enforcement agency across the country”, Chief Bernadette DiPino of the Sarasota Police Department in Florida, who helped study the problem for the police chiefs group, told the AP.
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Jurors found Holtzclaw, who turned 29 on Thursday, guilty of 18 counts involving eight of the women, and acquitted him of charges involving five other women he encountered while on night patrol in a minority, low-income neighbourhood.
“Thank you for justice, Heavenly Father”, one woman said. “In my mind, all I could think of was that he was going to shoot me, he was going to kill me”, said Ligons, a daycare worker in her 50s who was pulled over while driving home from a night with friends. “We need to find out how aggressive [investigators] were”. No time to look seriously about the healing process and the steps ahead to make the victims whole. She came forward as a victim after reading a news item about Holtzclaw on Facebook past year, she said.
Another victim, Shardayreon “Sharday” Hill, told reporters that she was handcuffed to hospital bed when Holtzclaw “started to manipulate me”.
Ligons recounted how the officer forced her to perform oral sex on him. But instead of ticketing her, he “fondled me and did certain things to me”, Ligons, 59, said Friday at a televised news conference, deciding to reveal her identity and her ordeal in June 2014 to the public.
“I was out there alone and helpless”. His lawyer declined to comment after the verdict. Together they hurried to report the assault to police.
But in the end, Liggons told reporters, “He picked the wrong lady to stop that night”.
“I didn’t think that no one would believe me”, one woman testified.
An expert testified that DNA on Holtzclaw’s uniform trousers matched that of the youngest accuser, who said she was 17 when Holtzclaw raped her on her mother’s porch. “I was scared, I didn’t know what to do. I felt like I was in survival mode, so I had to do what he was making me do”.
Most victims never report sexual assaults, and those who accused ex-officer Daniel Holtzclaw were even more vulnerable as poor black women, many with checkered histories of crime and addiction. We are awaiting the final sentencing on January 21st and we want consecutive years.
The Associated Press recently conducted a yearlong investigation into sexual misconduct by police officers, and found that around 1,000 officers had been fired over a six-year period for rape, sodomy, and other nonconsensual sexual acts.
In Cosmopolitan, writer Treva Lindsey said the case demonstrated “the unique intersection of racism and sexism in the lives of black women”.
Holtzclaw was convicted of 18 of the 36 counts against him. “This was not a new or unique form of violence”.
“Black men please know that you contribute to rape culture. I would hope that this case would be an important step toward raising their visibility”. In some cases, he specifically sought out women who had outstanding arrest warrants. He said he couldn’t believe the national media wouldn’t cover the story of a “serial rapist with a badge”.
Gayland Gieger, center, Oklahoma County assistant district attorney, takes notes as defendant Daniel Holtzclaw, second from left, cries as the verdicts are read in his trial in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015. “I wanted to make sure this wouldn’t happen again, no way no how”. Before the trial began, he was sacked. One of them, Grace Franklin, appeared beside the women on Friday morning.
Holtzclaw is accused of sexually coercing and assaulting at least 13 women, all African American.
She asked if the woman knew why they were meeting, according to the AP.
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Though prosecutors assembled a damning case with Global Positioning System pinpoints, records of computer background checks and other evidence, some anxious the all-white jury might doubt the testimony of his victims, all of whom are black. As soon as it was over, J.L. drove to her daughter’s house in tears.
