Police Shootings / Possible Abuse Threads [merged]

The city of New Orleans was ordered by a federal jury on Wednesday to pay $1m to a teenager who was sexually assaulted by one of the city’s policeofficers in 2020.

The federal civil trial, which was brought against the city by the teenager’s family on her behalf, began on Monday and lasted three days.

The jury deliberated for about three hours before reaching its verdict and found the city liable for hiring and failing to stop one of its officers, who had a criminal past, from molesting the teenager, and ordered the city to pay $1m to the victim, according to Nola.com.


The officer in question, Rodney Vicknair, died in prison earlier this year from brain cancer. He served less than six months of his 14-year sentence after pleading guilty to violating the teenager’s rights by sexually abusing her in 2020.

Vicknair met the teenager in May 2020 – when he was 53 and she was 14. He was was working and escorted her to undergo a forensic examination known as a rape kit after another man had sexually assaulted her, authorities said.

Vicknair then gave the girl his cellphone number, and in the months that followed, authorities say that they spoke on the phone and exchanged messages, and he would often stop by her house, unannounced and uniformed.

Over time, he allegedly made sexual comments to her, asked her for sexually suggestive photographs and exposed his genitals to her on video calls.

In September 2020, Vicknair arrived at the house of the teenager – who had then turned 15 – and told her to get into his vehicle, court documentsstate, and then federal prosecutors say he then locked the door and sexually assaulted her.

During the civil trial this week, the victim reportedly testified that Vicknair sexually assaulted her four times, according to WDSU News.

Vicknair was arrested in September of 2020 by his own agency on state counts of sexual battery, indecent behavior with a juvenile and malfeasance in office, and he was also suspended from the force. Federal authorities then charged him and he pleaded guilty in November 2022.…….

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...sexual-assault-verdict?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other