OKLAHOMA CITY — Residents of a neighborhood where an Oklahoma City police officer is accused of sexually assaulting women said Saturday the allegations make them distrust authorities.
Investigators say Daniel Ken Holtzclaw raped one woman and either fondled others or forced them to expose themselves. They say he made others perform sex acts on him.
The women were all black and between the ages of 34 and 58, but it’s not clear whether race played a role in the alleged crimes. Police documents show that some were picked up off the street, while others were assaulted after being pulled over for traffic stops.
Formal charges against the police officer could come by Friday.
“I’m already scared of them anyway,” said Seantah Graham, 34, of police.
She pushed her 1-year-old daughter across a lightly traveled boulevard in the racially mixed, working-class neighborhood of modest brick homes.
“They’ve pretty much got power in the palm of their hand,” Graham said. “And it’s your word against theirs.”
Another resident, Tammy Bell, 45, said the officer was “taking advantage of his shield” when he allegedly assaulted the women. Bell said she and others in the neighborhood on the city’s northeast side had heard rumors about the alleged crimes weeks before Holtzclaw was arrested. Police were slow to react, she said.
“They didn’t want to think it was the police doing all this. They kind of laid it to the side,” Bell said.
The investigation began — and Holtzclaw was immediately placed on leave — when police said a woman complained in June that Holtzclaw had sexually assaulted her during a traffic stop on a boulevard about 2 miles north of the state Capitol. The alleged incident prompted police to check other contacts Holtzclaw had with the public since beginning street patrols about 18 months ago.
Officers identified seven victims and eight incidents before accusing Holtzclaw of crimes including rape, sexual battery and indecent exposure.
Holtzclaw had not been previously disciplined in his three years with the department. He remained at the Oklahoma County Jail on Saturday in lieu of $5 million bail.
