CA Police Officer Sentenced to Life in Prison for Raping Women While On-Duty

[SeanTX]

As this one found out, committing sexual assault on duty is one of the few things cops can't get away with virtually all the time ...

http://www.sacbee.com/2014/04/04/6296522/former-west-sacramento-cop-gets.html#storylink=cpy


Former West Sacramento officer to spend life in prison
By Darrell Smith
dvsmith@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Apr. 4, 2014 - 11:08 pm
Last Modified: Saturday, Apr. 5, 2014 - 12:57 am

Sergio Alvarez’s estranged wife likened him to a firestorm that destroyed everything in his path. His family. His home. His marriage. His law enforcement career. The lives of the women he kidnapped and raped.

“Sergio did not choose to stop raping women,” read Rachael Alvarez’s letter, recited by a court advocate at the former West Sacramento police officer’s sentencing Friday in Yolo Superior Court. “He was stopped.”

Now the ex-cop, husband and father of three will spend the rest of his life behind bars, sentenced to 205 years on 18 counts of kidnapping and sexually assaulting women while patrolling the graveyard shift. A Yolo County jury in February found Alvarez guilty on the 18 counts but deadlocked on 10 others.

Alvarez, 38, sat expressionless as Judge Timothy Fall meted out multiple 25-years-to-life sentences for forced oral copulation and rape; 7 years-to-life terms for kidnapping; and more years still for rape and oral copulation under color of authority.

Alvarez’s sentencing ends a disturbing chapter for West Sacramento and its police department. One of their own cruised the overnight streets in 2011 and 2012, targeting women on the margins – prostitutes, addicts – and forcing himself on them.

His victims were “down-and-outers,” as lead Yolo County prosecutor Garrett Hamilton called them – women who Alvarez assumed would not be believed if they came forward.

Alvarez checked through warrant files like shopping lists to select one of his victims. He stopped others on the pretense that they were under the influence before hauling them away. Alvarez sexually attacked the women in his patrol car, DNA evidence showed. He also attacked them in back alleys and wooded lots.

“They were selected by Sergio Alvarez,” Hamilton said at trial.

snip

[Christian Liberty]

Wow... The courts actually did the right thing. I am surprised.

[phill4paul]

Wow... The courts actually did the right thing. I am surprised.

Put him in a room with these women and give them baseball bats.

[Christian Liberty]

Put him in a room with these women and give them baseball bats.

OK... fair enough. But at least the courts held this cop to the same standards they'd hold someone else. THat's rare as we all know.

[tod evans]

1 out of how many?

I view this as a token.....

[phill4paul]

OK... fair enough. But at least the courts held this cop to the same standards they'd hold someone else. THat's rare as we all know.

Hey, every now and then something is so egregious they have to do something in order to look like they aren't partial.

[Christian Liberty]

1 out of how many?

I view this as a token.....


Hey, every now and then something is so egregious they have to do something in order to look like they aren't partial.

Yeah... I know. Its not working on me, I know they are not only "partial", but downright evil and corrupt. I'm still glad this particular one "got his."

[tod evans]

Hey, every now and then something is so egregious they have to do something in order to look like they aren't partial.

Nah, one of the IAD guys was screwing his ol' lady and wanted him gone is a more likely scenario....

[phill4paul]

Yeah... I know. Its not working on me, I know they are not only "partial", but downright evil and corrupt. I'm still glad this particular one "got his."

As am I.

[SeanTX]

OK... fair enough. But at least the courts held this cop to the same standards they'd hold someone else. THat's rare as we all know.

yes, true. I can remember a child porn case a couple of years back where the judge came right out and said that he was giving the guy a reduced sentence just because of the fact that he was a retired cop. It's very rare to see a cop be held accountable AND get the same sentence a lesser being might get.

[moostraks]

Nah, one of the IAD guys was screwing his ol' lady and wanted him gone is a more likely scenario....

Wouldn't surprise me. Oh and the victims have life sentences too.:(

[Christian Liberty]

yes, true. I can remember a child porn case a couple of years back where the judge came right out and said that he was giving the guy a reduced sentence just because of the fact that he was a retired cop. It's very rare to see a cop be held accountable AND get the same sentence a lesser being might get.

Can you give me a link? I believe you but having evidence to use against people who actually respect cops would be good.

[SeanTX]

Can you give me a link? I believe you but having evidence to use against people who actually respect cops would be good.

Here you go. My memory was a bit off, I guess the judge didn't come right out and explicitly say his retired cop status was the reason for the leniency, but it's pretty obvious, esp with the mention of letters of recommendation from former police chiefs, etc. No mundane would be allowed to submit such letters from former employers, and I have no doubt that his status as a former member of the JustUs system led the judge to give him a reduced sentence.

http://hamptonroads.com/2012/01/exportsmouth-police-sergeant-gets-10-years-child-porn


Former Portsmouth officer gets 10 years for child porn

Former Portsmouth officer guilty of child porn - Jul. 13, 2011

By Tim McGlone
The Virginian-Pilot
January 24, 2012

A former Portsmouth police sergeant was sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday after pleading guilty in federal court to distributing child pornography.

Thomas Humphries, 63, of Portsmouth, faced as much as 22 years in prison under federal guidelines.

Humphries was charged last summer after he posted an image of child pornography on a website known by law enforcement to trade such images. He initially tried to say he was working undercover but later admitted his guilt.

The government asked for a sentence of between 210 and 262 months in prison. Humphries' lawyer, Richard Doummar, said a sentence of five years would be sufficient, given Humphries' years of police and community work.

U.S. District Judge Arenda L. Allen essentially split the difference.

Humphries, who worked in the K-9 unit, submitted dozens of letters of support and copies of awards and certificates he received over nearly 30 years he served on the Portsmouth police force. He retired last year.

One letter was sent in by Dennis A. Mook, former police chief for Portsmouth and Newport News.

"Rick Humphries was the kind of employee and colleague, as chief of police, that I would want 10 more men just like him," Mook wrote to the court. "I have never known him to be less than ethical, honest, trustworthy and hard working in all my years of dealing with him."

[LibForestPaul]

Wow... The courts actually did the right thing. I am surprised.
No, they did not. They saved face. Nothing more. The ramifications of him being given police privilege were too great.

[Mani]

Wait a minute...So it IS POSSIBLE a cop could rape a woman while on duty?


And yet if a cop approaches a woman and she feels uncomfortable and decides to leave (because no crime has been committed) she can be arrested and tackled?

So she's not allowed to run from a cop if she feels he's a threat to her....because he's a cop...

She just has to hope he's not a rapist in uniform, and if he is, she has to grin and bear it, then take it to court to hope she can get justice.