An Oklahoma judge on Thursday sentenced police officer Daniel Holtzclaw to 263 years in prison for 18 counts of sexual crimes, including four first-degree rape charges. The Oklahoma City cop was found guilty in December of using his job as a police officer to rape and sexually assault black women, deliberately targeting women with criminal pasts in the poorest areas, presuming that would make them unlikely to report the crime and less likely to be believed if they did.
Here’s more on the trial from the Associated Press:
During the monthlong trial, 13 women testified against Holtzclaw, and several said he stopped them, checked them for outstanding warrants or drug paraphernalia, and then forced himself on them. All of the accusers were black. Holtzclaw is half-white, half-Japanese, and the son of a longtime Enid, Oklahoma, police officer. Holtzclaw’s attorney had described the former college football star as a model officer whose attempts to help the drug addicts and prostitutes he came in contact with were distorted. [His attorney] also attacked the credibility of some of the women, who had arrest records and histories of drug abuse, noting that many didn’t come forward until police had already identified them as possible victims after launching their investigation.
The District Judge ordered Holtzclaw to serve the terms consecutively, denying his request for an appeal bond, which would have kept Holtzclaw out of prison until his appeal could be heard by the court.
Correction, January 22, 2016: This post originally stated that a jury sentenced Holtzclaw. It was a judge who issued the sentence.
