Last summer, Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Ken Holtzclaw was accused of raping several women while on duty. Since then, he has been charged with36 criminal counts related to the sexual assaults of 13 women.
In September, a judge set Holtzclaw's bond at $500,000, with the following conditions of release should the defendant post bond: he was to be under fullhouse arrest with GPS monitoring, allowed only to go to his attorney's office and court proceedings; he was to turn in his police uniform, badge, andguns; he was to have no contact with his accusers.
Shortly after his release, Holtzclaw violated his bond conditions by leaving for a medical appointment without making arrangements to do so. He was orderedto spend 14 days in county jail, and his bond was increased to $609,000.
Now the defendant is accused of violating the terms of his house arrest a second time. This time, he will spend another 15 days in the Oklahoma CountyJail.
Reports say that the defendant failed to charge his GPS ankle monitor as required. As part of his bond conditions, he is not allowed to let more than 24hours elapse between charging sessions. Instead, say prosecutors, he allowed the device's battery to go completely dead before charging, leaving sixhours unaccounted for in the early morning hours of July 19.
Holtzclaw's defense attorney says his client "regrets"failing to charge the GPS device.
The former police officer was charged after a woman called police to say that she had been pulled over and sexually assaulted by an officer. Accusationsagainst Holtzclaw say that the man had a history of stopping or pulling over women who were not likely to report him--drug abusers and prostitutes,for example--and threatening them with jail if they did not perform sexual acts. The woman who filed the initial complaint against the officer, however,had no criminal history and was not afraid to report the alleged rape.
Charges against the former police officer include 6 counts of first degree rape, 2 counts of second degree rape, 11 counts of sexualbattery, 5 counts of indecent exposure, 7 counts of forcible sodomy, 2 counts of procuring lewd exhibition, first degree burglary, andstalking.
In Oklahoma, the maximum penalty for first degree rape is life in prison.
The defendant has pleaded not guilty and been ordered to stand trial. His rape trial is scheduled to begin October 26. Holtzclaw's attorney says his clientis innocent of the charges against him.
