Oklahoma City officer formally charged in series of sexual assaults

An Oklahoma City police officer was formally charged with sexual assault and sodomy after he forced several women to perform sexual acts or expose themselves to him while he was on patrol between February and June of this year, according to court documents made public on Friday.

Daniel Ken Holtzclaw, a 27-year-old former college football star who had been on patrol for just 18 months, remains in the Oklahoma County jail in lieu of $5- million bond, documents show.

Holtzclaw was arrested last week after a months-long investigation revealed that while he was on duty, he repeatedly stopped women and forced them to expose themselves or have sex with him, prosecutors said last week.

The victims were all black women between the ages of 34 and 58.

According to the documents released on Friday, Holtzclaw took several of the women into the back of his patrol car, where he would fondle them or force them to perform oral sex. In one instance, documents said, Holtzclaw reminded a woman she was wanted on warrants and advised her to “play by his rules” before accosting her.

In another incident in April, Holtzclaw was accused of finding a woman in possession of a crack pipe and driving her home, where he exposed himself, according to court documents.

He then told her “this is better than the county,” referring to a possible arrest, before sexually assaulting her, court records show.

Holtzclaw was placed on leave in June when a woman claimed he forced her to perform oral sex during a traffic stop, prosecutors have said.

Holtzclaw was on patrol alone when most of the assaults occurred, a police department spokesman previously told the Los Angeles Times. In Oklahoma City, police normally patrol without a partner and the city’s police cruisers do not have dashboard cameras.

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