Fired officer’s convictions a rare triumph for rape victims

“I am ashamed at the lack of coverage”, said Tezlyn Figaro, a former Oklahoma City resident and a media consultant who helped raise the profile of the trial. Many of his victims had criminal records or histories of drug use; most lived in the low-income neighborhood where he patrolled. All of his victims were African American. While Holtzclaw’s case didn’t receive much national attention at all, there are many hundreds more of cases involving sexual assault by a police officer that have received no attention at all. “Convince these ladies that someone does care about them”. On Thursday, the jury convicted Holtzclaw for forcing her to perform oral sex at a traffic stop.

“The only thing I could see was my life flashing before my eyes and the gun in his holster on his right side”, Ligons said, recalling the night she was attacked.

Finally he backed away from the vehicle, and she stood up.

“I kept begging him, ‘Please, don’t make me do this, don’t make me do this, sir, ‘” Liggins said.

“No nurses came to check on me”, she said through tears. “We seldom encounter this degree of criminal misconduct in a police officer”.

All of that explains why Oklahoma City activists felt pessimistic about the case, even after Holtzclaw was prosecuted on 36 charges.

Holtzclaw will be sentenced in January, and faces up to 263 years. “He identifies a vulnerable society that without exception – except one – have an attitude for ‘What good is it gonna do?” “He targeted women that he clearly viewed as throwaways, women who he knew would not be believed”.

“In my mind, all I could think of was he was going to shoot me, he was going to kill me”, Liggons told reporters. There, she said, he pulled down her shorts and raped her. “What kind of police do you call on the police?” she asked.

The girl said she was first approached by Holtzclaw in May 2014 during an argument with two friends.

“I was out there alone and helpless, didn’t know what to do”, she told reporters.

“He started searching me….” After telling her he raped her on her front porch he needed to search her. Once there, she was handcuffed to a bed, she said.

Ms Hill said: “Me being in the room with the police, not expecting to get violated the way I did, the way I was done, I just couldn’t even believe it. I was speechless”. And I thought stuff like that only just really happened on movies. “I’m a black female”.

That testimony encapsulated what made the tense case so controversial – especially after an all-white jury was selected. All his accusers are black.

Holtzclaw has been identified in court records as Asian or Pacific Islander.

During the trial, a lawyer for Holtzclaw, Scott Adams, questioned the character of his accusers, some of whom had faced prostitution charges and had abused drugs.

“A rape case is always hard”.

“It was obvious some of the survivors were not believed by the jury and that is a disappointment”, Franklin told The Huffington Post in an email. “Unfortunately we often hear reports of horrific abuse daily on the national sexual assault hotline”. “Whatever it is to further their agenda”.

Numerous victims were initially afraid to come forward.

Her complaint led to Holtzclaw’s suspension, the same day it was filed. “There is a tendency not to value black women the way other women are valued”. That number grew to 13 as the year went on. “Did he confess?'” Davis testified.

Holtzclaw, a college football star who joined law enforcement after a brief attempt at pursuing an NFL career, rocked back and forth, sobbing in his chair, as the verdicts were read.

The women who testified at the trial spoke of having the same doubts that they would be treated justly – because of who they were or because of Holtzclaw being a white police officer.

“If an all-white jury in Oklahoma City would convict a policeman of this amount of grievances, of charges, then it gives us hope that our marching and continued organizing is not in vain”, Sharpton said.