The defendant says only consensual sex occurred, but the prosecutor says that when a police officer wears a uniform and carries a gun, it automatically constitutes "use of force."
(SALEM, Ore.) - The trial of former Salem Police officer Sterling Alexander entered its third day today, in the Marion County courtroom of Judge Albin Norblad. He faces charges in three separate cases; in which two of the alleged victims are described as former acquaintances and one was a co-worker with the city of Salem.
Prosecutor Jodie Bureta says that Alexander forced the three women to commit sexual acts with him while he was a police officer. One of the victims was 17-years old at the time of the alleged act. The other two women were adults. The three have all offered some courtroom testimony about the alleged crimes at this point.
Bureta played an audio tape for the jury today that was a copy of an interview police conducted with Alexander. In the interview he admits to having had consensual sex with the girl, then seems startled when it is disclosed that she was 17. The defendant says he had no knowledge that she was a minor, but Bureta says that can't be true, because Sterling Alexander initially met the girl by taking a police report from her which disclosed her age.
Alexander and the alleged victim met after she witnessed a crime and then was threatened by the suspect because she turned it into police. That alleged threat is what caused Salem PD to send another officer to investigate, and the officer was Sterling Alexander.
She describes a casual relationship with Sterling Alexander that began that day, was based in his general concern for her well being and safety, purely platonic. As a Salem Police officer, Alexander gave the girl his business card which included his cell phone number. After that, the two began conversing. But the woman says it was all comforting and never anything else until the day in question.
The alleged crime happened during broad daylight while Alexander was giving the girl a ride to court, where she was going to testify as a witness regarding the crime she had earlier reported.
Newspaper accounts previously depicted Alexander as having offered the girl a ride to court, and that he told her to wear a dress. Testimony from the alleged victim however, indicates that it was she who phoned Alexander and asked him for a ride, and that she asked him what she should wear because she had never been in court before. It was at that point that Alexander reportedly told the girl that she should dress well and suggested she wear a dress or a skirt for court.
Tough questions of character
The jury has to decide if Sterling Alexander, one of the distinctly few African-American police officers in this area who claimed before any of these charges were lodged against him that he was the victim of racial attacks in the police department, is guilty. Did he befriend this girl, treat her kindly, and then pull over and rape her before dropping her off at court, where he knew she would be surrounded by police and court officers?
It is for them to decide.
Advocates for this embattled former police officer say that would be out of character for Alexander, who was a military policeman before becoming a police officer in Oregon. But the sexual act that is alleged is something Alexander admits happened, consensually, and he says he thought that she was an adult. The prosecution says they aren't buying it.
Another alleged victim who testified today says she too was befriended by Sterling Alexander almost six years ago when he was a Stayton, Oregon Police officer. She describes Alexander as a friend who used to cruise by her duplex in his police car and she would walk out to the street to visit him. Alexander is accused of raping this woman, but by her own testimony she was not forced, and she did not say "no" to his advances.
She says she participated in the sex act because she had revealed to Alexander as a friend that she was having underage drinking parties at her house, and he is alleged to have told her that her child could be removed by state authorities over the alcohol use.
When asked, the woman says she didn't stop having drinking parties with other minors, in spite of having been warned by Sterling Alexander. When Lafky asked her why, she said, "Because I like to hang out with my friends and they drank."
Then she says that one night Alexander shined his spotlight on her bedroom window which she said he had done before to let her know that he was there. He then is alleged to have entered her house in uniform and kissed her. She says she replied, "Can't you get into trouble for that?"
The alleged victim testified that Alexander told her he would return the next morning after he finished his shift at 6:00 AM. The next morning the woman says she was sleeping on her couch when he returned in civilian clothes and knocked on the door. The woman says she let Alexander in.
Citing her fear of losing her child over the underage drinking parties, she says she complied with Alexander's demands. She testified today that he told her to take her clothes off and she initially hesitated. She mentioned repeatedly that she was afraid that her kids would be taken away, so she ultimately had sex with him.
The underage drinking parties according to the woman, are not something Alexander witnessed. It had only been part of a conversation between them and Alexander had not personally seen any of the alleged drinking activity.
"I didn't want to make him mad and I didn't want to get into trouble," she stated in regard to why she allowed him back inside after his alleged unsolicited kiss the night before. She said she "did kiss him back" and that she was not physically forced to comply with the sexual intercourse.
Bureta says that a police officer's actions are unlike those of civilians, in that wearing a uniform and carrying a gun she says they automatically constitute a "use of force, even when the act is committed against another police officer."
That seems to be the angle in bringing charges against Alexander in the third case, which involves a former city employee who worked as one of the "redshirts" or downtown Community Enforcement officers. The woman says she desperately wanted to become a police officer and that is one of the main reasons she cites for why she complied with Alexander's wishes to have her perform oral sex on him. This woman is the third alleged victim and also the most recent.
This is another interesting situation as the incident was already reviewed by Salem Police and the woman received disciplinary action. Deputy Chief Steve Bellshaw of Salem Police testified that they did not pursue it as a criminal matter at the time because the alleged victim/participant did not want to press the matter. Sterling Alexander was not disciplined at that point as a city employee because he had already resigned his position with Salem Police.
Musical crime scenes?
Exactly where this alleged crime occurred is the biggest question facing the court, because the area where this is stated to have occurred is actually in West Salem, which is in Polk County, and would consequently have to be tried in that court system.
The prosecution said that they had an investigator take the alleged victim to the place where it happened yesterday, which she had originally stated was on either Glen Creek or Orchard Heights, and now says it happened in the 3000 block of Eola.
The prosecutor in this case faces a problem if the case is in Polk County, a situation that apparently was not given strong consideration before the case began. The matter raises a big question about double jeopardy; a person can not be charged twice with the same crime, so it looked like the prosecution might be watching this one slip away.
But Jodie Bureta stated today that in cases where there is a potential conflict of venue like this, the case can be tried in the first county, providing it happened within one mile of the county line.
As the alleged victim now recalls a new location on Eola, it appears to be within one mile of the county line. The original locations she had stated were both clearly beyond the county line.
Lafky also said that a GIS Analyst from Marion County who testified today did not have adequate findings as far as the mile mark went, on a map that was being used to demonstrate the 'under a mile' proximity. Even with the alleged victim's newer, closer location, the question of whether it is under or over a mile depends on what a person considers to be the center of the Willamette River.
"You say the county line is in the middle of the Willamette River, but you show it here going across a bank," Lafky told the witness. It looks like the exact location of the alleged sexual contact between Alexander and the city employee will be a matter of ongoing arguments.
Unlike the first two alleged victims, the woman in this case says she knew Sterling well and had considered him a flirt. She admits having many contacts with Sterling Alexander and that she continued to spend time around him even though she says sex was a frequent subject.
The woman says that on the day of the alleged crime, she went for a ride-along with Sterling Alexander and from all accounts they were both being sexually forward with one another and she admits each of them reaching into the other's lap and making 'through the clothing' contact with each other's private areas.
Lafky asked Bellshaw why the case was not vigorously prosecuted in the beginning, instead of sitting for ten months. Bellshaw replied that the alleged victim was not interested in pressing any charges in the matter. "We try to take into account the victim's feelings," he said.
Lafky then led the Salem Deputy Chief down a road of questioning that brought up how, in recent years, police have changed policies that allowed a victim to "just drop charges against a suspect." Bellshaw explained that there are still cases where a witness is reluctant or refuses to testify, and that police do come into contact with charges that they ultimately can not pursue because they lack evidence or witness cooperation.
The Police Emails
As one former police officer is tried for crimes, a different allegation is at hand as well; the ethics of the police investigation itself have been called into question by Defense Attorney Kevin Lafky over a series of police inter-office emails.
He says those and other emails indicate that Salem Police were actively involved in investigating the case for an extended period of time, even after it had been assigned to Oregon State Police to avoid a conflict of interest.
Lafky says they tell more than that though, as he produced the email from Terri Cassebarth to Salem Police Lt. Steve Bellshaw which read: "Tell Jeff to work harder and name his price - Desperate for another victim."
Lafky says the statement that former Salem Police Sgt. Jeff Barnes "work hard and name his price" could be an indicator of the police actually paying a witness to testify.
When asked about the statement, Bellshaw said it was meant in a way like, "I'm buying dinner for the first person to break this case" and not as a direct reference to paying a witness. Lafky did not pursue the matter today. When Bureta questioned Bellshaw about it, she asked the question, "Did you pay for a witness?" to which Bellshaw replied "No."
Bellshaw says he was a liaison officer in the case who was charged with being the go-between with the two agencies. But throughout a large part of the investigation, it seems Jeff Barnes, the former Salem Police Sergeant, may have been very active in the case, trying to convince the second victim, known as "a family friend" to testify. Bellshaw says Barnes spent his personal time on the case and not his official on the clock police time.
Lafky asked why Bellshaw found it necessary to be in the middle of the conversations between the OSP investigator and Barnes, who was working on the case in his private time. "They had different schedules" Bellshaw explained, saying that Jeff Barnes was working as an undercover drug officer.
"I think that in this day and age with cell phones and email that they could have communicated," Lafky replied, pushing his point about how a liaison and an investigator appear in this case to be doing similar work.
Bellshaw did not concede that Salem Police are guilty of any wrongdoing.
Lafky says his client did not have forcible sex with any of the victims. Spokesman for Alexander "Skip" Osborne says they will demonstrate that Sterling Alexander has been investigated and prosecuted unfairly and that both police agencies appear to be the subject of a major legal conflict of interest when it comes to this case.
This is the first story published by Salem-News.com about Sterling Alexander's trial:
Sex Abuse Trial of Former Police Officer Begins in Salem, Oregon
Trial in Former Salem Police Officer Sex Abuse Case ContinuesSalem-News.com