New York police officer convicted of sexual abuse
A police officer who molested women while on duty in uniform was convicted of sexual abuse and official misconduct yesterday in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn.
The jury, of 11 women and one man, deliberated for nearly two days before rendering a verdict. The officer, Fernand Clerge, 40, was ordered held without bail. Officer Clerge was acquitted of the most serious charge against him, attempting to commit a criminal sexual act.
Already suspended from duty, he now faces a sentence of up to seven years in prison.
In a weeklong trial, the prosecution said that Officer Clerge and his partner on patrol, Officer Charles McGeean, while responding to routine noise complaints and traffic violations, made women submit to searches that turned into unwanted groping.
Less than six months after the officers became partners in 2005, a woman accused them of assaulting her after a traffic stop. Publicity surrounding the case brought more victims forward, the prosecution said. Officer McGeean, 39, pleaded guilty in March to sexual abuse and official misconduct, receiving a sentence of three years? probation.
For the trial of Officer Clerge, Kevin O?Donnell, an assistant district attorney, called two victims to testify.
The first, a 37-year-old woman, recounted an assault after a traffic stop shortly after 3 a.m. The officers escorted her home, she said. Then, as her relatives slept in their bedrooms, Officer Clerge tried to force her to perform oral sex, before restraining her and masturbating. DNA evidence was found in the apartment.
A defense lawyer, Paul P. Martin, challenged the woman?s account and questioned her about a federal lawsuit she has brought against the city.
A second victim, 21, said Officer Clerge had responded to a noise complaint at her friend?s apartment, then searched her in a sexually invasive manner. "It made me feel violated," she testified. "It made me feel like, all right, why?s he doing this? He?s a police officer."
Mr. Martin questioned the young woman about her sobriety on the night in question.
As the trial closed last week, he accused both women of lying about the attacks to establish the basis for lawsuits.
He said that the first episode was consensual and the second was fiction.
"You cannot convict this man," Mr. Martin told the jury, "based upon the testimony you heard on the witness stand."
But the prosecutor, Mr. O?Donnell, underscored the fear that Officer Clerge had inspired.
"What do you do," he asked in his closing statement, "when it?s the police who are the people who are abusing you?"
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