RI Officer Sentenced to 40 Years for Raping Lesbian While on Duty

And the rape occurred in a police station!

Last April, a Rhode Island jury convicted 39-year-old suspended  Providence Police Officer Marcus Huffman of first-degree sexual assault for the 2007 attack on the then-19-year-old lesbian woman. The former officer even responded to her family’s 911 call  "only to brazenly return as the lead investigating officer after the woman reported the crime."

On Wednesday, Huffman was sentenced to 60 years in prison, with 40 years to serve. Calling the disgraced officer "a wolf in sheep's clothing",  the judge "rejected the tearful minutes-long apology Huffman delivered earlier. 'His greatest regret was getting caught,' Superior Court Judge Netti C. Vogel said."

The Providence Journal provides background. It's not very pleasant.

The Fall River woman, now 22, had been drinking heavily with her friends before they got to Platforms Dance Club on March 17, 2007, and was turned away at the door. Her friends went in without her. At some point, Huffman pulled up to the club in his police cruiser and the woman got into the front seat under the impression he would take her home, she said. He took her to a substation in South Providence around 1 a.m., where the woman said she passed out in the bathroom. She awoke hours later partially disrobed, with throbbing pain in her vagina. Huffman was gone. She went to her aunt’s house nearby where relatives reported the rape. Experts testified that Huffman’s sperm was found on the woman’s underwear, though a rape kit did not show evidence of trauma to the woman’s vagina.

Huffman's history on the force includes charges of excessive force, brutality and sexual abuse.

In 1995, Huffman, then 25, was indicted after being accused of having sex with a 10-year-old girl when he was 16 and 17. The judge threw out the case because she said she found no evidence of coercion. On that same day, in another courtroom, Huffman faced charges that he demanded oral sex from a prostitute. That case was also dismissed. In 1998, Huffman was suspended without pay for failing to show up for a hearing on a complaint that he beat a 14-year-old boy with a billy club. That same year, he was found guilty of three misdemeanor assault charges and given a one-year suspended sentence after he got into an altercation with employees at the Registry of Motor Vehicles.

Despite the felony sexual assault conviction and sentence, "Officer" Marcus Huffman remains suspended without pay "until he has exhausted or terminates any appeals in the case." The disgraced officer's defense attorney says they will appeal the conviction.

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RI Police Officer Convicted of Raping Lesbian While on Duty

Comments

[mjolnir202]

Wow! With that rap sheet, what exactly would disqualify you from being a police officer in Providence? Many places won't even hire you with bad credit. I hope this young woman sues the hell out of the city.

[thegayte-keeper]

This is just AWFUL!