Defense attorney Scott Adams declined to comment after the verdict and did not immediately return telephone messages seeking comment about jury selection. Count 2, procuring lewd exhibition, not guilty.
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“I didn’t do it”, said Holtzclaw, before he was escorted out of the courtroom in handcuffs. Many of these incarcerated women have also been victims of sexual abuse while imprisoned. Judge Henderson and lead prosecutor Gayland Gieger both remarked they had never been involved in such a long jury deliberation process. This reality likely contributes to the reality that for every rape reported by a black woman, 15 more go unreported among the same demographic, according to For Harriet. Daniel Holtzclaw cries as the verdicts are read in his trial in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015.
Holtzclaw’s lawyer portrayed him as a model officer and questioned the credibility of the women who testified against him.
An AP investigation backs up the mom’s instinct.
Justice was served Thursday evening when a jury reached a verdict on charges brought against former Oklahoma City Police officer Daniel Holtzclaw. They found the former officer guilty of half of the 36 counts he faced. “I’m a black female”. According to a recent Associated Press investigation, “sexual misconduct by officers has largely escaped widespread notice due to a patchwork of laws, piecemeal reporting and victims frequently reluctant to come forward because of their vulnerabilities”. “I didn’t think anyone would believe me”, one woman testified. “Call the cops? He was a cop”.
In the first pool of 24 potential jurors, there were three black men, but they were not picked for the jury.
The jury: The jury included eight men and four women. The word of a white, well-to-do officer usually described as an “all-American good guy, against the word of women of color with a lower socioeconomic status, many of whom had records of drug use?”
In just 2015 alone, six black women have been killed during encounters with police.
“I didn’t think anyone would believe me”. It wasn’t until one survivor in her 50s and from a different neighborhood that detectives took note of the case, Taylor wrote.
Flanked by her family and a group of African-American activists outside the Oklahoma City courthouse, Ligons said she knew she had done nothing wrong when Holtzclaw pulled her over and assaulted her. S.H. didn’t know yet if she was under arrest. Holtzclaw, a former Oklahoma City police officer, was facing dozens of charge… “That’s what I kept saying to myself”. She said she was pulled over for no reason and as she was begging the officer not to make her do what he was asking for. He just did that. And I have friends and I haven been around other people who have been victimized.
Prosecutors said in their closing arguments that numerous accusers have had troubled lives but that the law protects them as much as anyone else.
What am I going to do? I couldn’t believe what was going on was really going on. I don’t want to have to take you to jail.
All of them testified in the trial that began more than a month ago. This was reflected in the dearth of media coverage in the Holtzclaw case.
For the most part, these women were said to have prior criminal issues like warrants and drug offenses which Holtzclaw used to intimidate, exploit, and abuse them. Attorney Benjamin Crump, who represent five of Holtzclaw’s victims, praised Liggins for her courage to speak out.
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Among the women was a 57-year-old grandmother who was sexually assaulted by Holtzclaw on June 18, 2014. Sentencing is set for January 21.
