Prosecutors say a Denver patrol officer offered a deal to a woman he approached in a parking lot — sex or jail.
Hector Paez, 31, was arrested Monday after an lengthy internal-affairs investigation and was still in custody in the Douglas County Jail on Tuesday on $100,000 bail.
The 36-year-old woman was wanted on an arrest warrant from Jefferson County.
“He allegedly placed her in his patrol car and took her to a light-industrial area on the west side of town and coerced her into having sex with him,” said Lynn Kimbrough, a spokeswoman for the Denver district attorney’s office.
Three days after the alleged incident May 16, the woman filed a criminal complaint against Paez, and he was placed on paid leave during an internal-affairs investigation. His arrest means he will be put on unpaid leave.
No information about the woman was released because she is an alleged sex-assault victim.
Denver police and the district attorney’s office jointly announced the arrest Tuesday.
A Denver police spokesman said the department would not elaborate further.
Paez is a four-year veteran of the department who worked in District 4 in southwest Denver and lives in Lakewood.
Paez faces felony charges of kidnapping, sexual assault and attempt to influence a public servant. The latter charge alleges he lied about having contact with the woman when he was interviewed by the internal-affairs investigators.
Public records show Paez lived at Camp Lejeune, N.C., a Marine base, from 1998 to 2005.
His only previous run-in with the court system was in 2008, when he was sued by a collection agency and had his wages garnished for nine months after a Jefferson County judge issued a default judgment to the debt collectors when Paez failed to show up to court, according to records.
The arrest is more bad publicity for Denver law enforcement, which has weathered a number of high-profile claims and legal settlements on excessive-force charges against officers in recent months.
The Denver city attorney’s office reported last month that the city had paid out nearly $6.2 million since 2004 to settle lawsuits involving police officers. Almost all of them involved allegations of excessive force.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com
