Couples say Detroit cop forced them to perform sex acts

A Detroit police sergeant has been suspended while the department investigates allegations that he forced two couples to perform sex acts while he masturbated outside their vehicle in a city park last weekend, the Free Press has learned.

“I feel violated and misused and I can’t trust the police,” a 22-year-old Detroit woman said in an interview today with the newspaper. “I feel degraded and disgusted.”


The two couples went to police early Saturday morning after the alleged episode at Chandler Park, on Detroit’s east side. The two women and two men said they were parked inside a purple Ford Explorer drinking beer about 3:50 a.m. when a white Detroit Police SUV pulled up behind them and activated its emergency lights.

A lone officer in full uniform approached, the four said, and told them they could be arrested for being in the park after 10 p.m., according to police and interviews with the two women.

One of the women interviewed said the sergeant checked their identification, noted that some of them had criminal convictions, and threatened to take them to jail.

The SUV occupants, all in their early 20s, said they pleaded with the officer to not arrest them.

"The officer said, ‘You need to make this worth my while,’ ” which the four later told police they understood to mean “the officer wanted to see a sex act.”

The two women said they hesitatingly complied, and performed oral sex on their male companions for about 15 minutes, police reported.

“I was crying the whole time,” a 25-year-old woman on probation for passing bad checks told the Free Press. “We felt like we had no choice. At one point he asked my friend, ‘Is your girl all right?’ ”

The 25-year-old said she asked to step out of the vehicle to urinate. The officer allegedly shined a flashlight on her as she did so and she said she noticed he was masturbating.

“I was scared,” she said. “We were all scared. We were in shock.”

The sergeant also waved off another police car that approached the group during the episode, asking the couples to pause their activity briefly, the four told police.

The 22-year-old woman told the Free Press the sergeant also asked her to expose a breast, and she did.

The sergeant returned their identification and drove off.

“He told us: ‘I told you not all cops are bad cops,’ ” the 25-year-old woman said.
The two couples then went to a police station to complain.

Reached at home Thursday, the sergeant declined comment. He referred questions to his lawyer Fred Walker of Royal Oak, who did not return a call.

The sergeant has not been charged with a crime as the investigation continues, said Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Jack Fennessey, and his identity has not been publicly released. The Free Press is not identifying the occupants of the SUV because the newspaper generally does not name people who file sex-assault claims.

Police records indicate the sergeant is under investigation for first-degree criminal sexual conduct, which carries a penalty of up to life in prison.

Police spokesman James Tate said the sergeant was suspended with pay Monday, pending a review by the Board of Police Commissioners.


http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770419027