[MA] Cop-on-cop: Charges dropped, but, "How can she call herself a cop if she doesn't do anything to stop him?"

...[Dorchester District Court Judge David] Weingarten said that under the state statute for a restraining order, known as a 209A, the female officer does not qualify as a plaintiff... "She's been through so much," the husband said. "How can she call herself a cop if she doesn't do anything to stop him?"...

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[MA] Accusation of Boston Police cop-on-cop stalking, rape, threats, and... - ...The [accused] officer is part of the department’s elite mobile operations unit, which includes sniper, dive, and SWAT teams... ...In the courtroom were at least half a dozen officers from the special operations division, an elite unit that includes the department's SWAT team and motorcycle squad...

SUFFOLK DA DROPS OFFICER'S CHARGES
Lack of evidence cited in rape case
Boston Globe
By Maria Cramer
November 3, 2009
[Excerpts] The Suffolk district attorney's office has decided not to go forward with a case against a Boston police officer accused of raping one of his colleagues and threatening to kill her and her husband. Assistant District Attorney David Deakin, who oversees all sexual assault cases and child abuse cases in the county, told the female officer that there was not enough evidence to pursue the case, according to the officer's attorney and her husband... In a statement, the prosecutors' office said investigators spent six weeks assessing the allegations before deciding they could not pursue criminal charges. “Boston police detectives have interviewed more than two dozen witnesses and have gathered telephone records, hotel records, text messages, other personal records, and testimony from restraining order hearings in the Dorchester District Court,'' the statement said. "After a thorough review of the evidence and the law, Suffolk prosecutors have concluded that the evidence in the case does not support a criminal prosecution. As a result, no criminal charges will be forthcoming in Suffolk County." The department's Internal Affairs Division is still investigating to determine whether any Police Department rules and regulations were violated... The female officer's husband said they still want to pursue the case and plan to reach out to the FBI and other jurisdictions where the officer has alleged the sexual assaults took place. The officer alleged that her colleague raped her several times during the course of a month, first in Connecticut, where they had traveled for a shooting competition, and then in the Boston area. "She's been through so much," the husband said. "How can she call herself a cop if she doesn't do anything to stop him?" During a hearing last month on a request for a restraining order, the female officer said her colleague had left her pregnant and threatened to hurt her or her family if she did not have sex with him or give him constant updates of her whereabouts. The restraining order was denied because under state statute their relationship as colleagues does not qualify either of them to obtain a restraining order. The officer's lawyer, Thomas Drechsler, said that prosecutors made the right decision and that whatever occurred between the two officers was consensual... Both officers will remain on paid administrative leave until the internal affairs investigators concludes their investigation... [Full article here]

Earlier last month, since the last post -

Video:




BOSTON COP DENIES RAPING FELLOW OFFICER
WBZ 38
October 5, 2009
[Excerpts] In a Boston courtroom Monday, a district court judge denied the request of a female Boston police officer to extend a restraining order against a fellow cop. That officer says she was raped repeatedly by her co-worker. The male officer insists the relationship was consensual – and that she panicked when she became pregnant... Defense attorney Tom Drechsler was quick to point out that just days after the alleged rapes, the female officer requested to be transferred into the same unit as her alleged attacker. "He threatened you, you say, to shoot your husband and harm you and other people if you didn't do whatever he said for the rest of your life, correct?" Drechsler said to the accuser on the stand Monday. "Yet you went to see [a superior] and engaged in an interview where you enthusiastically pursued a voluntary transfer into the same unit." In the weeks after the initial sexual contact, the female officer acknowledged she went to the male officer's apartment twice, late at night, when she was supposed to be on paid detail work. Drechsler says the two had sex on those occasions. There were also phone calls and text messages from the female officer during that period – 116 of them according to court records - though the content of those phone calls and text messages was not revealed. The female officer said in court that the SWAT member demanded she keep in touch with him, so he could know where she was at all times. When the female officer discovered she was pregnant, she told her husband about the sexual contact, but said she tried to hide the fact she was raped out of fear for what the male SWAT member might do. "I tried to allude [my husband] to believe that it was just an infidelity and that that was it, and to tell him not to ask me what had happened," the female officer said in court Monday... [Full article here]

JUDGE VACATES RESTRAINING ORDER OFFICER FILED AGAINST COLLEAGUE
She accused him of rape, threats
Boston Globe
By Maria Cramer
October 6, 2009
[Excerpts] A Dorchester District Court judge yesterday vacated a restraining order that a Boston police officer had filed against one of her colleagues, accusing him of raping her and then threatening the life of her and her husband. Judge David Weingarten denied a request to extend the restraining order against the officer after his accuser took the stand and withstood about two hours of cross-examination from the male officer's lawyer, Thomas Drechsler. Weingarten made his decision based on technical reasons, not the merits of the case. The woman had previously been issued an emergency restraining order... Weingarten said that under the state statute for a restraining order, known as a 209A, the female officer does not qualify as a plaintiff. Under the statute, the person seeking a restraining order must have been married to the perpetrator, lived with him or her, be related by blood, dated, or have a child together. The female officer said she is pregnant and that the father is the accused rapist, but Weingarten said that being pregnant a short period of time does not qualify the couple as having a child together. "I'm trying to be as clear as possible that for the purposes of this statute, that the mere fact, the straightforward fact of an early pregnancy does not qualify as having a child in common," Weingarten said. The woman's lawyer, John Swomley, said he planned on going to Suffolk Superior Court today to seek a stay-away order to keep the officer from his client. That type of action is civil and could go before a jury, but it does not require the plaintiff to have the relationships defined under the state's statute. Swomley said he also wants to pursue criminal charges against the officer. Yesterday's hearing became tense and almost volatile at several points as Drechsler aggressively questioned the female officer, raising doubts about how scared she could have been of someone she contacted so often... The woman, who wore a gray blazer with a Boston police pin affixed to the lapel, told Drechsler that the officer wanted to know where she was at all times and demanded that she give him regular updates... Drechsler then pointed out that she had gone to the officer's house three times after the first assault and had "sexual relations" with him. "It wasn't sexual relations," she replied in a hard voice. "If it meant keeping him away from my family, I would do what he wanted. I didn't feel there was any other option." Drechsler also asked her why she interviewed for a job in the Special Operations unit on Sept. 1, six days after the first alleged assault. The officer, an accomplished markswoman who owns several guns, replied that joining Special Operations was a longtime dream of hers and that other officers had encouraged her to join the unit. She said she did not want to let down the people who had supported her... [Full article here]

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