By Liz Wolfe
Rare (2/9/18)
Though most Americans are probably unaware of it, in most states it’s not illegal for police officers to have sex with people in their custody. Nationally, 35 states allow a strange legal loophole where cops can claim a sexual encounter between them and their detainee is consensual to avoid rape or assault charges.
A recent Buzzfeed report brought attention to the case of 18-year-old Brooklyn native Anna Doe, who was allegedly raped while handcuffed during a traffic stop.
“Inside, Anna said the detectives took turns raping her in the backseat as the van cruised the dark streets and she sat handcuffed, crying and repeatedly telling them ‘No.’ Between assaults, she said, the van pulled over so the cops should switch drivers,” reports Buzzfeed. The details are indisputably gory, and semen evidence from Anna’s subsequent rape kit identified detectives Eddie Martins and Richard Hall as the perpetrators.
It should be common sense: there’s no such thing as consent if you’re detained, handcuffed, and fear you might be going to jail.
But the case isn’t as clear-cut as it should be because, in a twist that defies all logic, New York is one of the many states that bafflingly allows cops to claim to have had consensual sex with people they’re arresting. And even a simple scan of police sexual misconduct databases shows that cops having sex while on the clock, or using their power to assault vulnerable people, isn’t uncommon. In New York alone, where Anna Doe was raped, there are countless examples. In 2007, Officer Fernand Clerge was convicted of molesting women while on duty, in uniform. In 2006, Officer Andrew Johnson drove a teenager home as a part of his duties. Later that night, he showed up at the teen’s house waving a gun, trying to force himself on her. In 2008, Sergeant David Rodriguez arrested a 17-year-old’s boyfriend, then returned to the scene to allegedly rape the teenage girl, though her account differs from his.
Festering loophole
The accounts are numerous: school resource officers having inappropriate sexual conduct with teenagers while on the job, law enforcement officers and traffic enforcement agents forcing sex workers to have sex with them in exchange for evading arrest. It’s all completely unbelievable — and mind you, only some of the officers logged in databases like these receive any sort of jail time for their sexual misconduct and assault. Many are fired or choose to voluntarily resign.
The Associated Press tracked sexual misconduct by police officers from 2009 to 2014, using data from 41 states, and found that 550 cops were “decertified for sexual assault, including rape and sodomy, sexual shakedowns in which citizens were extorted into performing favors to avoid arrest, or gratuitous pat-downs.” …