Ex-Oklahoma officer to be sentenced for rape, sex crimes

A former Oklahoma City police officer convicted of raping four women and sexually assaulting several others while he was on duty faces the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison at a sentencing hearing on Thursday.

Daniel Holtzclaw, center, listens as Gayland Gieger, right, Oklahoma County assistant district attorney, speaks during Holtzclaw’s sentencing hearing in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2016. He could serve up to 263 years in prison consecutively.

Judge Henderson also denied his request for an appeal bond.

Prosecutors said Holtzclaw targeted black women in neighborhoods east and north of the state Capitol building.

The former Oklahoma City police officer was found guilty in December on 18 charges, which included rape, sexual battery and other charges. Holtzclaw was acquitted on another 18 counts. “So all I can say is, I was innocent and he just picked the wrong lady to stop that night”.

“If there is additional DNA evidence… and if there are additional people who came forward and falsely claimed that they were victims – yet for whatever reason their stories were withheld from the defense despite representations under oath that their stories did not exist – then deliberate misrepresentations were made not only to defense counsel but to the Court, calling into question the credibility of the government’s entire case”, Adams wrote in the request. Three accusers delivered victim-impact statements Thursday, and at least one other was in the courtroom.

Another woman, who was 17 at the time of the assault, said her “life has been upside down” since Holtzclaw raped her on the front porch of her mother’s home.

At trial, however, evidence only showed DNA from one woman was found on Hotlzclaw’s trousers.

Several of Holtzclaw’s victims have filed civil lawsuits against Holtzclaw and the city in state and federal court.

The request, filed Wednesday by attorney Scott Adams, seeks either a new trial or “an evidentiary hearing to determine whether discovery was withheld from the defense”.

The Associated Press last year highlighted Holtzclaw’s case in after an investigation revealed about 1,000 law officers were decertified in a six-year period because of sexual misconduct on the job.