Ex-Oklahoma cop's rape conviction symbol of national problem

Former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw, center, cries as he is led from the courtroom after the verdicts were read for the charges against him at the Oklahoma County Courthouse in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015. Holtzclaw was convicted of raping and sexually victimizing eight women on his police beat in a minority, low-income neighborhood. (Nate Billings/The Oklahoman via AP)
Former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw, center, cries as he is led from the courtroom after the verdicts were read for the charges against him at the Oklahoma County Courthouse in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015.  (Nate Billings/The Oklahoman via AP)

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A “serial rapist with a badge” who now faces many years in prison for raping Black women on his beat was caught because of the courageous actions of a grandmother who he pulled over and sexually assaulted, her lawyer said Friday.
“He just picked the wrong lady to stop that night,” said Jannie Ligons, who filed a police complaint and then called a local TV station to share her experience, triggering an investigation that led to charges that Daniel Holtzlaw assaulted 13 women while working as an Oklahoma City police officer.
The conviction of Holtzclaw Thursday night on charges of rape, sexual battery and other charges should send a strong message nationwide, said attorney Benjamin Crump, who is seeking civil damages from the city for some of the victims. “Black women’s lives matter. It just as if this were a group of 13 White women.”

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 met on his beat in a minority, low-income neighborhood, and recommended 263 years, including 30-year sentences for each of four first-degree rape convictions.

Daniel Holtzclaw cries as the verdicts are read in his trial in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015. Holtzclaw, a former Oklahoma City police officer, was facing dozens of charges alleging he sexually assaulted 13 women while on duty. Holtzclaw was found guilty on a number of counts. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, Pool)
Daniel Holtzclaw cries as the verdicts are read in his trial in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, Pool)

Flanked by her family, other victims and a group of African-American activists outside the Oklahoma City courthouse, Ligons said she knew she had done nothing wrong when the officer pulled her over and assaulted he
“I was out there alone and helpless, didn’t know what to do. In my mind, all I could think of was that he was going to shoot me, he was gonna kill me,” Ligons said. “He did things to me that I didn’t think a police officer would do.”
With the support of her daughters, she said she immediately went to police and then to the media, triggering the probe that led to what many praised as justice on Friday. “I came forward,” she said. “I wanted to make sure this wouldn’t happen again, no way no how.”
Sexual misconduct committed by lawenforcement officers is a problem that has concerned police chiefs for years.
Holtzclaw’s case was among those examined in a yearlong Associated Press investigation that revealed about 1,000 officers nationwide had lost their licenses for sex crimes or other sexual misconduct over a six-year period.
The AP’s finding is undoubtedly an undercount, since not every state has a process for banning problem officers from re-entering law enforcement, and states that do vary greatly in how they report and prosecute wrongdoers.
One factor stands out, however — victims tend to be among society’s most vulnerable: juveniles, drug addicts, and women in custody or with a criminal history.
That’s exactly who authorities accused Holtzclaw of targeting.
After Oklahoma City Police received a complaint from a grandmother who said Holtzclaw forced her to perform oral sex during a traffic stop, investigators identified a dozen other women who said he had victimized them as well.
The youngest, a 17-year-old girl, was the last to testify at his trial.
The girl recalled Holtzclaw pulling up in his police car as she walked home one night in June 2014. Holtzclaw drove her to her family’s home and walked her to the porch, where he told her he had to search her. She said he grabbed her breasts, then pulled down her pink shorts and raped her.
He asked if it was the first time she had ever had sex with a cop, she testified. Her DNA was found on his uniform trousers.
Holtzclaw’s attorney, Scott Adams, asked the girl about perceived inconsistencies in her testimony as well as her use of drugs. She pushed back, telling the lawyer: “I’m really getting upset by the way you’re coming after me.”
The jury convicted Holtzclaw of first-degree rape, second-degree rape and sexual battery in the girl’s case.
Her mother clapped her hands and screamed with joy at the verdict, while Holtzclaw hung his head and sobbed.
The AP does not identify victims of sex crimes without their consent and is not using the mother’s name, to avoid identifying her daughter.
Daniel Holtzclaw cries as the verdicts are read in his trial in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015. Holtzclaw, a former Oklahoma City police officer, was facing dozens of charges alleging he sexually assaulted several women while on duty. Holtzclaw was found guilty on a number of counts. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, Pool)
Supporters of the victims of former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw pray after the verdicts were read for the charges against him at the Oklahoma County Courthouse in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015. (Nate Billings/The Oklahoman via AP)

Several of Holtzclaw’s accusers had been arrested or convicted of crimes, and his attorney made this a cornerstone of his defense. Adams questioned several women at length about whether they were high at the time, and noted that most didn’t come forward until investigators identified them as possible victims.
Ultimately, the strategy failed.
Holtzclaw was convicted of one of two charges related to a woman who testified he gave her a ride home, then followed her into her bedroom and raped her, telling her, “This is better than county jail.”
That woman testified in orange scrubs and handcuffs, because she had been jailed on drug charges hours before appearing in court, but the jury still convicted Holtzclaw of forcible oral sodomy in her case.
The defense attorney declined to comment after the verdict.
Holtzclaw, who turned 29 on Thursday, was a former college football star who joined law enforcement after a brief attempt at pursuing an NFL career. He was fired before the trial began, and as the verdict was read, he rocked back and forth, sobbing in his chair.
His mother, sister and father — a police officer in Enid, about 100 miles northwest of Oklahoma City — were in the courtroom, along with at least one of his accusers and several Black community leaders.
Questions of race also surrounded the trial. Holtzclaw is half-White, half-Japanese. All his accusers are Black. The case was heard by an all-White jury, and after the verdict, Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater said Holtzclaw’s attorneys were squarely responsible for that.
Some supporters of the women had questioned whether the jury would fairly judge their allegations, and Prater said he had wanted a jury that was a “good cross-section of our community,” but defense attorneys eliminated every potential Black juror during the selection process.
Prater said he hopes people will see that his office and local law enforcement will stand up for any one, no matter their race or background.
“I don’t care what they look like, where they go to church, what god they worship, or how much money they make,” he said. “We stand up for people in this community.”
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The AP’s “Betrayed by the Badge” series:
AP: Hundreds of officers lose licenses over sex misconduct: https://apne.ws/1J0bVlI
AP: Officer sex cases plagued by lax supervision, policies: https://apne.ws/1SSnNf4
AP: Broken system lets problem officers jump from job to job: https://apne.ws/1QARkuu
AP investigation into officer sex misconduct, by the numbers: https://apne.ws/1J0c6gU
A look inside AP’s investigation on officer sex misconduct: https://apne.ws/1lB6J2L
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Merchant reported from Dallas. Associated Press National Writer Matt Sedensky in West Palm Beach, Florida, and AP reporter Tim Talley in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.

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