Will Foley
Police Chief Ray Rael told reporters that in his more than 20 years at the SFPD, this incident marks the first time he's known of sexual assault allegations made within the department.
An attorney representing a Santa Fe Police Department patrol officer who alleges she was raped by a veteran SFPD detective says his client has "concerns" about how State Police investigators interpreted what she said in interviews. State Police was the agency charged with investigating the allegations and spoke twice with the patrol officer and once with the detective about the July 31 encounter at the detective's home.
On Wednesday SFR broke the story that District Attorney Angela "Spence" Pacheco had decided evidence police provided in the case doesn't support prosecuting the detective, 53. The patrol officer, 31, submitted her resignation letter on Monday—after less than two years on the force.
John Day, the attorney for the patrol officer, says his client first read the full police report this week and when she did, she was troubled at "how they interpreted what she said." State Police released the report on Tuesday.
"At one point [the State Police] talk about how she didn't fight back and there was no physical bruising," Day says. "I mean that's—I keep harping on this—but as a former prosecutor who did a lot of sex assault cases...that's 20 years out of date to say, 'Well since there's no physical harm she wasn't raped."
Following SFR's story, the patrol officer told The Santa Fe New Mexican that the State Police report failed to mention that the "detective held her down," the newspaper reports.
She told the Albuquerque Journal she disagreed with a phrase State Police investigators used in the report: that the sex was "really enjoyable."
The paper reports:
She said this statement was taken out of context and relates to a term regarding rape she has since learned is called body betrayal. She said the comment was made in a wider context in which she said she enjoyed the physical experience, but did not understand how that could happen because it was not consensual.
State Police spokesman Sgt. Emmanuel Gutierrez did not reply to a request for comment late Thursday.
