2 North Side Cops Charged In Sexual Assault
UPDATED 05/12/11 5:00 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Two Chicago Police officers are on the wrong side of the law Thursday morning, accused of sexually assaulting a woman when they were supposed to be on duty.
Officers Paul Clavijo and Juan Vasquez were each charged with one count of criminal sexual assault, and one count of official misconduct.
Clavijo is also facing charges in a separate alleged sexual assault that happened on March 10, according to a police.
Bond for both officers was set at $500,000 Thursday afternoon. They were both stripped of their guns, and can no longer collect a check from the Police Department.
Vasquez was released from the Cook County Jail about 5:15 p.m., while Clavijo spent the night in jail, the Cook County Sheriff's office said.
In court Thursday, defense attorneys argued that the sex between the officers and the woman was consensual, albeit an act of bad judgment.
"This was not a case of forced sexual relations," Jed Stone, representing Clavijo, said outside the courtroom. "Indiscretions, as our president Bill Clinton reminded us, are not crimes."
The alleged victim's lawyer, Jon Loevy, dismissed those comments.
"She wants it to be known this was not a game, this was not a consensual sexual encounter," he told reporters.
Clavijo and Vasquez are both 38 and both 10-year veterans. They were assigned to the Town Hall District, which includes the Uptown and East Lakeview neighborhoods, and Wrigley Field.
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"This is a sad day – a sad day not because two members of the police department have been arrested and charged," Interim Police Supt. Terry Hillard told reporters at the criminal courts building. "It's a sad day because of the immeasurable damage that has been done to individuals, to multiple families, and the community."
A police report for the incident in which the 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 SUV 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 they played strip poker and 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.
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 Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.
