At least four police officers are under investigation after multiple women came forward with stories concerning multiple St Louis cops who allegedly raped and sexually assaulted area women for years. The accusations include one police officer who was named by six separate women and a policewoman who says she was raped by a fellow law enforcement officer.
KDSK reports that the four officers in the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department have been placed on administrative leave while St. Louis County police officials investigate multiple allegations of sexual assault spanning over a decade. While the department’s public relations office would not comment on the ongoing investigations, St. Louis District Attorney Wesley Bell confirmed that his office was contacted about the cases.
The allegations not only outline a pattern of abuse by multiple officers but may also indicate that the SLMPD was aware of many of the allegations and still allowed the accused officers to continue to enforce the law. While KDSK did not name the officers, they outlined the charges against the cops.
Aside from the women who made formal complaints about officers drugging and raping them as far back as 10 years ago, KSDK reports that some of the other allegations include:
Officer 1: A female police officer accused a St. Louis police officer of raping her as his truck was parked outside a St. Louis bar on Jan. 17, 2020. The woman says she informed the internal affairs department on Feb. 20 and the St. Louis County Police Department began an investigation.
Officer 2: Accused of multiple assaults including:
- On Dec. 15, 2019, a former St. Louis police employee said she was sexually assaulted in her home and reported the incident to internal affairs on March 16, 2010.
- Another woman claims she was sexually assaulted by the same officer when she was unconscious in her home on May 12, 2012. She claims she woke up and confronted the officer, but he left her home without explaining himself. The victim reportedly informed the SLMPD’s internal affairs department four days after the incident but he was never criminally charged.
- On March 11, 2020, a woman reported a March 2010 sexual assault by this officer.
- Another alleged victim says the officer assaulted her in the summer of 2010. She reported the incident on March 13, 2020.
Officer 3: On March 6, 2020, a woman told internal affairs that she was sexually assaulted by Officer 2 and this officer in the summer of 2010.
Officer 4: A woman alleges this officer turned a consensual act into a non-consensual act. She took her story to the internal affairs department a week after the August 2016 incident.
“I have requested detectives, along with St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office investigators, to perform a detailed and thorough investigation on this case,” prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell said in a statement. “Upon completion of the investigation, we will make a determination on whether or not prosecution is warranted.”
Officials have refused to reveal the outcome of the previous internal affairs investigations, citing a clause in Missouri’s Sunshine Law.
Between 2005 and 2015, U.S. police officers were charged with 1,260 sex crimes including 405 rapes, 636 acts of sexual fondling and 219 acts of forcible sodomy.