City Of Bell Ordered To Pay $750k In Officer Sex Case
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — The city of Bell will pay $750,000 to a woman forced by a ex-cop to perform a sex act during a traffic stop, the plaintiff's attorney said today.
The woman will be paid in installments through July 2012, attorney Luis A. Carrillo said.
The judgment settles suits filed in state and federal court against the city, former Bell police Chief Andreas Probst and Officer Feliciano Sanchez.
Sanchez, now 35, pleaded guilty in July 2009 to one count of deprivation of rights under color of law. He was sentenced in U.S. District Court in December to nine years in prison.
Sanchez stopped the woman -- identified in court papers as Jane Doe -- for a supposed traffic violation, put her in his patrol car and drove another spot, where he put his hand on his pistol and forced her to perform oral sex on him on May 16, 2007, according to court papers.
Sanchez maintained during his sentencing that the woman framed him in order to help her chances of winning her lawsuit.
A federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted Sanchez in 2008.
After a federal jury failed to reach a unanimous decision, Sanchez pleaded guilty before the case could go to trial for a second time.
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