Former Cop Found Guilty On Multiple Charges Of Rape And Sexual Assault

A former Oklahoma City cop was found guilty of sexually assaulting multiple women while he was on the job.

In June of 2014, now-29-year-old Officer Daniel Holtzclaw pulled over a 57-year-old daycare worker and molested her before forcing her to perform oral sex, according to The Guardian.

The victim immediately reported Holtzclaw to the Oklahoma City Sex Crimes Unit, and detectives arrested him later that day.

By January 2015, an investigation yielded so many allegations of sexual abuse against Holtzclaw, he was fired from the department.

He faced 36 counts including burglary, stalking, indecent exposure, sexual battery, forcible oral sodomy and rape, and all of the alleged crimes involved black women.

Prosecutors said Holtzclaw coerced the majority of his 13 victims -- all of whom reportedly had histories of drug abuse or prostitution -- into performing sexual acts by promising to drop charges against them.

CNN reports one woman said Holtzclaw forced her to show him her breasts and genitals. Others claimed to have been raped in his squad car or on a front porch.

In court, a 17-year-old victim reportedly testified,

What am I going to do? Call the cops? He was a cop.

Holtzclaw also allegedly forced another woman to perform oral sex after she was drugged and handcuffed to a hospital bed.

Defense attorneys suggested the victims lacked credibility since they may have been high during the encounters, but the consistency of their stories could not be denied.

An all white jury consisting of eight men and four women deliberated for 45 hours over four days before finding Holtzclaw guilty on 18 counts, including four counts of first-degree rape.

Holtzclaw, who committed his crimes over seven months in 2013 and 2014, wept in court as the trial came to a conclusion on Thursday.

In a termination letter, his former boss Chief William Citty wrote,

The greatest abuse of police authority I have witnessed in my 37 years as a member of this agency.

Holtzclaw could be sentenced to life in prison when he appears in court on January 21.

Citations: Former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw found guilty of rape (CNN), Daniel Holtzclaw former Oklahoma City police officer guilty of rape (The Guardian)