Chicago Cops Indicted In Sexual Assault
UPDATED 06/02/11 7:53 a.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Two Chicago Police officers have been indicted, on charges that they sexually assaulted women on the city's North Side earlier this year while on duty.
Paul Clavijo and Juan Vasquez, both age 38, were charged May 11 with criminal sexual assault and official misconduct for the March 30 assault of a 22-year-old woman.
Clavijo was also charged with a second count of criminal sexual assault and official misconduct for a separate incident -- which occurred earlier in March and involved a 26-year-old woman, a the Cook County State's Attorney's office said.
Both were formally charged on Wednesday and arraignment was set for June 15, state's attorney's office spokeswoman Tandra Simonton said.
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The men have been Chicago Police officers for 10 years, but were stripped of their powers in connection with the investigations.
A police report for the incident in which the Town Hall District officers were charged says the woman was crying while walking outside near Sheffield Avenue and Addison Street, after leaving a male friend's home where they had been drinking and arguing.
At some point, a marked Chicago Police Tahoe sport-utility vehicle approached with two male officers inside. They offered the woman a ride home, and she accepted, according to the report.
The woman told police that during the ride, she had sex with one of the officers in a passenger seat of the SUV and that she did not say "no," according to the report.
When they arrived at her apartment in the Rogers Park neighborhood, all three went inside, where she had sex with one officer in her bed. But she began banging on her wall with her hands hoping to catch her neighbors' attention, saying she felt intimidated by the officers and was afraid to say "no" to their sexual advances, the report said.
Allegations also indicate the officers played strip poker with the woman, but an attorney for the woman later said that claim was false.
She eventually ran from her apartment screaming and pounding on a male neighbor's door, who didn't answer. Another neighbor, a woman, saw her and called police, prompting an initial response about 3 a.m. for a "person calling for help."
When the male neighbor finally opened his door after hearing the commotion, he told police he saw a naked man running down the hallway and another man dressed in a Chicago Police uniform walking away, according to the report.
Police sources say the officers left behind mock turtleneck collars with the letters CPD embroidered on them, a cell phone, and a police belt-keeper. The victim was taken to Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston for treatment.
GPS data showed the officers also stopped at a liquor store and other places on the way to the alleged victim's residence, the sources said.
The corner of Sheffield Avenue and Addison Street, where the woman was allegedly first found walking, is within the Town Hall District where Clavijo and Vasquez were assigned to patrol. But the woman's apartment in Rogers Park is two districts away.
The additional incident in which only Clavijo is charged occurred March 10 about 1 a.m. while the officers were on duty together near Clark and Sheffield, prosectors said.
Again, in their marked vehicle, they saw a woman walking alone and offered her a ride, prosecutors said. The officers drove the victim home and asked to come into the apartment to use the restroom.
Once inside, as his partner was using the restroom, prosecutors allege Clavijo followed the woman into her bedroom, pushed her onto the bed, pulled down her pants and performed a sex act on her.
When the woman objected, the officers left. Prosecutors said the victim did not immediately report the assault because she worked in the area and was intimidated because the suspects were officers who knew where she lived.
The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.
