Ex-deputies will not be charged in sexual assault

[wcrockets]

Ex-deputies will not be charged in sexual assault
Prosecutors cite insufficient evidence against former lawmen accused of holding woman hostage in motel for sex.

By ZAHEERA WAHID
The Orange County Register


Two former Orange County sheriff's deputies accused of luring a woman to a motel room and coercing her into sexual acts will not be charged with a crime, the Orange County District Attorney's Office announced Wednesday.

"After reviewing the report and documents ... we don't feel there's sufficient evidence to sustain the filing of charges," prosecutor Joe Dane said.

The sergeant, a 15-year veteran who worked in the James A. Musick Jail, and the reserve lieutenant, a 13-year deputy, both resigned from the Sheriff's Department in October, sheriff's spokesman Jon Fleischman said.

Fleischman declined to comment on the district attorney's decision not to file charges.

But the 38-year-old woman who accused the deputies of sexual assault called the decision a "major injustice."

"This is what I was afraid of," the woman said. "This is why people don't talk. This is why they don't tell."

The former sergeant and former lieutenant did not return calls seeking comment.

The woman went to the Buena Park Police Department in July and reported that she'd been held in a Motel 6 and raped repeatedly during the course of five days while her boyfriend was jailed at Musick.

She said the sergeant, the lieutenant, an Orange woman and a man known only as Dr. Bob were among the steady stream of people who entered the small motel room and participated in the drug-induced sexual acts.

Buena Park police logged hundreds of hours investigating the allegations and served several search warrants before handing over a 1,000- page report to the District Attorney's Office.

Dane said he spent two months wading through the report. While Dane would not elaborate on why the evidence was deemed "insufficient," the woman said the prosecutor told her he could not prove the sexual acts weren't consensual. The woman added that investigators told her she'd been roped into a "sex club."

"The prosecutor not filing charges does not mean it did not happen," said the woman, who alleged a cover-up because the suspects are law enforcement officials. "I've been running scared for my life for five months."

Dane denied that the deputies received any special treatment and pointed to other cases filed against law enforcement officers.

"It's unfortunate that some people may look at it that way," Dane said. "We've prosecuted police officers in the past. Their status doesn't entitle them to break the law."

The woman said she would pursue a civil case against the former deputies.

"I'm destroyed," she said. "Those men are free, free, free. Now I'm going to have to run for the rest of my life."