A federal jury ordered the city of New Orleans to pay $1 million to a teenager who was sexually assaulted by a police officer in 2020, The Guardian reports. The civil trial began on Monday and lasted three days. The jury 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 $1 million to the victim. Officer Rodney Vicknair died in prison 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 working and escorted her to undergo a rape kit after another man had sexually assaulted her, authorities said. Vicknair then gave the girl his cellphone number.
In the months that followed, authorities say that they spoke on the phone and exchanged messages, and he would often stop by her house. 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, locked the door and sexually assaulted her. During the civil trial, the victim testified that Vicknair sexually assaulted her four times. Vicknair was arrested by his own on charges of sexual battery, indecent behavior with a juvenile, and malfeasance in office, and he was suspended from the force. Federal authorities then charged him, and he pleaded guilty in 2022. The lawsuit says that Vicknair was the subject of a series of complaints since becoming a police officer in 2007, including allegations of unauthorized force, failure to follow department policy and verbal intimidation.
Commenti