Cops Probed For Letting Sex Attacker Go

Police said they’ve taken a man off the street who has been assaulting street sex workers — months after three officers allegedly stopped him but then let him go.

Those three officers are now the subject of an internal police investigation.

Those three officers are now the subject of an internal police investigation.

Police Chief Anthony Campbell confirmed that the three officers are currently on administrative duty pending the outcome of the internal investigation into how they handled the matter. (At least one of the officers has previously been investigated and cited for using bad judgment on a call.)

The matter began when Beatrice Codianni, who advocates on behalf of sex workers through a group called Sex Workers and Allies Network (SWAN), informed police that prostitutes in Fair Haven were being attacked by men in the community on what the women refer to as ​“bad dates.”

“Women are getting beaten, raped and robbed,” Codianni said.

Codianni said the sex workers did not feel comfortable speaking with police officers, who have worked to limit rampant street prostitution in Fair Haven. The sex workers told her they’d be comfortable if SWAN would relay the information to police. So, Codianno said, she forwarded a description of one of those suspects to Chief Campbell and Sgt. Wilfredo Cruz.

Detectives subsequently developed a suspect who, it turned out, the three police officers had encountered during a motor vehicle stop late one night in May on the west side of town.

According to a member of law enforcement officer familiar with the case, the three officers found a man behind the wheel of the car and a female sex worker in the front passenger seat. The sex worker informed one officer that the driver had pointed a gun to her head and demanded that she perform oral sex. Officers subsequently searched the car and found what turned out to be a bb gun; the officers allowed the driver to leave without arrest. (The woman reportedly did not return to the car with him.)

The man behind the wheel fit the description of the attacker forwarded by Codianni. Police have since arrested the man on suspicion of sexually assaulting two sex workers in separate incidents since the night of that late-night west side stop, according to Chief Campbell.

Campbell said that thanks to the body camera footage of the west side incident, brass was able to see how the incident unfolded — and the police were able to track down the alleged rapist.

“I am pleased with how the body cameras were working. Based on what I saw, I found the officers’ behavior completely unacceptable,” and ​“very disturbing,” he said.

He declined to discuss the matter further because the investigation is ongoing.

Other arrests may ensue. Without discussing specifics, Assistant Chief Herb Johnson, who oversees detectives, said the department has an active ​“ongoing” investigation that grew out of information forwarded by Codianni and SWAN.

The group had originally protested the police for conducting stings of street sex workers. Since then the city has embarked on an experimental alternative-to-arrest diversion program called LEAD, or Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion. (Read about that here.) And Johnson and his detectives have worked with SWAN on alleged sexual assaults.

“We’re collaborating. We have a good relationship going forward,” Johnson said. ​“We want people to feel comfortable in reporting. That’s what we’re doing. When we get complaints, we call her, and she helps out in the community.”

“They’ve actually picked up somebody who has raped women and beaten them. They asked us if we could find one of the women who filed the complaint,” Codianni said.

After Johnson set up a meeting between SWAN and the department’s special victims unit, Codianni said, she returned to speak with some of the attacked sex workers to encourage them to share information directly with the police. She said some have agreed to. So a face-to-face meeting ​“is in the works. It’s just a matter of our schedules and their schedules; it’s going to happen.”