Former Oklahoma police officer found guilty of multiple rapes

A former Oklahoma City police officer was found guilty of rape and sexual battery by a jury on Thursday.

Several of the women have sued Holtzclaw and the city.

The former Oklahoma City police officer stood trial for 36 charges related to the rape and sexual assault of 13 black women while he was on duty.

Former Oklahoma City policeman Daniel Holtzclaw was found guilty on 18 of 36 counts, including four counts of rape in the first degree.

The 29-year-old Holtzclaw began sobbing late Thursday after a jury convicted him.

Each of the first-degree rape convictions carry a life sentence but the jury recommended 30 years for each charge, equaling a total of 263 years in prison for all the offenses. Holtzclaw will be sentenced January 21.

Daniel Holtzclaw spent the night of his 29th birthday at the Oklahoma County Jail. Seven armed deputies were stationed around the room.

In essence, Daniel Holtzclaw knew to rape women who would be seen as “unrapeable” and whose personal lives and the stigma attached to them might overshadow his decisions to sexual assault them. Holtzclaw wept in court as the verdict was read.

Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater said after the verdict that Holtzclaw’s attorneys were responsible for ensuring there was an all-white jury considering the case.

He also said the not guilty verdicts involving five victims does not mean the jurors didn’t believe those women. Some testified that they didn’t think anyone would believe them due to their status.

Sexual misconduct committed by law enforcement officers is a problem that has concerned police chiefs for years. Many have noted this high rate of violence is likely tied to the persistent tendency to objectify women of color’s bodies and view them as hypersexual, due in no small part to a historical legacy in which black women were legally “unrapeable” in this country for decades.

Prosecutors said Holtzclaw targeted women in a low-income, minority neighborhood.

The woman was tearful after the verdict and prayed with supporters outside the courtroom. He said Holtzclaw’s attempts to help the drug addicts and prostitutes he came in contact with were distorted.

They were on A.’s mom’s porch when Holtzclaw allegedly told her he had to search her. He allegedly groped her underneath her clothes and inserted his fingers into her genitalia.

The AP does not identify victims of sex crimes without their consent and is not using the mother’s name, but is using Ligon’s name because she spoke publicly.

She was the first to testify.

Holtzclaw, who was sacked after his arrest previous year, did not testify in his own defense.

The teenager recalled Holtzclaw pulling up in his police auto as she walked home one night in June 2014. At least three times, protesters chanted, “Black women matter!”

We attempted to speak with Holtzclaw’s defense attorney Scott Adams, but he did not provide a comment. The very few who are tried in court can be portrayed as heroes, swaying juries.

“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. Arguably two witnesses were further victimized when they were called to the stand wearing orange scrubs, having been jailed for drug charges, while Holtzclaw was allowed to wear a suit even though he, too, was in police custody.