Two Los Angeles police charged with raping women while on duty

James Nichols, 44, and Luis Valenzuela, 45, are accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting four women.

“These two officers have disgraced themselves”. “They’ve disgraced their badge and the oath of office”.

The officers, who were arrested early Wednesday, were not immediately available for comment.

“On one occasion, Valenzuela was getting a b-job in the backseat of a department-issued Volkswagen Jetta with Nichols acting as the lookout”, two victims’ lawyer, Dennis W. Chang told the New York Daily News.

After Officer Nichols and Officer Valenzuela became partners in 2008, the pair began allegedly assaulted women through 2011.

At the time the alleged assaults occurred, the victims were 19, 24, 25 and 34 years of age.

Craig Lally, the president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents rank-and-file officers, said in a statement that the arrests are “deeply disturbing”. A second victim is preparing a lawsuit against the LAPD. If convicted, they face life in prison. CBS News reports the officers would allegedly threaten further arrests if the women didn’t have sex with them. The Los Angeles City Council settled one case previous year after agreeing to pay one woman $575,000, while the other case is still being litigated.

When the woman complained to a narcotics unit supervisor in January of 2010, the investigation stalled when a detective was unable to find the woman, according to the Times. This time, an investigator tracked down the dog-walker as well as the woman who said she had been raped in 2008. The assaults occurred at various locations, including in the officers’ police vehicle, according to prosecutors. Their employment status is pending an administrative hearing that would follow their criminal case, he said. If they do, he said, “my client absolutely denies it”.

But back in 2013, LAPD, Nichols and Valenzuela were hit with a Federal Civil rights complaint from a victim who remained locked in jail on drug charges.

“When we got the district attorney’s assurance that she would file, we went out and physically tracked down these – and I used the term loosely – officers and put them in handcuffs”, he said.