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Back in May, Denver police officer Hector Paez allegedly kidnapped a woman, took her to an isolated location, and told her to perform oral sex on him. Now, Paez has been arrested and is being held at the Douglas County jail on charges of sexual assault, kidnapping, and attempting to influence a public servant after lying when confronted by an internal affairs officer (via CBS4). “The charges are that the assault took place on May 16. By May 19 the victim had indeed come forward. If not for her willingness to come forward, we might not have known about the allegation at all,” says a Denver District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman.
This controversy adds to the many that have wracked the Denver Police Department in the past year, including several allegations of police brutality and concerns that police overseers have not been tough enough on abusers.
The latest legal battle in civil court, which emanates from the widow of a man who was shot to death by police, comes from lawyer Kenneth Padilla, who will ask a U.S. magistrate to force the city to turn over the internal-affairs file of the department’s chief, Gerald Whitman, in order to determine whether there is a pattern of lax discipline toward officers, writes The Denver Post.