An Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper suspended amid allegations of misconduct has been named as a defendant in a federal lawsuit accusing him of rape.
Trooper Eric Roberts was suspended from the highway patrol on July 24, but the Department of Public Safety did not reveal the reason for his suspension other than alleged misconduct. Now, a lawsuit filed in United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma provides some insight into the allegations that led to his suspension.
According to the lawsuit filed in Tulsa, Roberts, while performing his duties as an OHP officer pulled over a woman in a traffic stop, then drove her to a secluded location and raped her.
The lawsuit indicates that on July 22, Roberts was on duty and driving his patrol car when he approached a vehicle driven by the plaintiff. He made contact with the driver and performed a U-turn to pull over the driver. The lawsuit alleges that the driver had not violated any traffic laws nor given any other probable cause for the traffic stop.
Allegedly, Roberts said he could smell marijuana when he approached the vehicle and told the driver, "You just made my day." He told the woman to get into his patrol vehicle, leaving her friend waiting in the stopped vehicle.
The lawsuit alleges that the trooper then began asking inappropriate questions of a sexual nature. The woman says that Roberts asked her if she had a phone with internet capabilities, and then told her to return to her vehicle to tell her waiting companion to drive to a hotel and get a room without her. The plaintiff says that she complied out of fear.
Roberts allegedly ordered the woman to remove her pants and underwear and told her to look up a pornographic video on her cell phone. He told her to perform sex acts on herself while displaying the video for him to view as he drove to a secluded location.
The trooper then allegedly stopped the car, made the plaintiff turn around to face the back seat, and raped her. He then drove her back to her car and said, "I'll see you later."
The plaintiff confided in her friend, who then contacted the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. An OHP captain came to investigate.
The woman filed the lawsuit because no charges have yet been filed against Roberts, and she believes that the OHP's investigation of one of its own troopers is a conflict of interest.
The lawsuit claims that Roberts violated her constitutional rights to be free from unreasonable search and seizure, to be free from excessive force, to be provided equal protection under the law, and not to be forced into involuntary servitude. The plaintiff is seeking actual and exemplary damages for mental, physical and emotional pain. The lawsuit does not specify the amount of damages sought, but asks that the damage award be determined in a jury trial.
EDIT: Roberts's attorney says that the allegations in the lawsuit are "unequivocally untrue," and points out that his client's accuser has a history of making a false rape complaint. She was charged in Cherokee County in 2009 with false reporting of a crime. Learn more here.
