Former Roanoke police officer pleads no contest to sexually assaulting female prisoners
http://www.roanoke.com/news/crime/roanoke/former-roanoke-police-officer-pleads-no-contest-to-sexually-assaulting/article_aead7093-cdae-5096-aa3b-a393cf8904bd.html
A former Roanoke police officer has resolved the two criminal cases against him, both involving sexual assault claims by prisoners who were in his custody.
Francisco Alberto Duarte, 30, was indicted earlier this year on charges of aggravated sexual battery and forcible sodomy.
He was due to go to trial on the former case on Thursday morning and on the latter case in January.
At a hearing Thursday in Roanoke Circuit Court, Duarte pleaded no contest to amended counts of felony carnal knowledge with an inmate and misdemeanor sexual battery.
Through a plea agreement with prosecutors, Duarte received six months to serve on each charge, with five years in suspended time. He likely will end up serving about three months on the misdemeanor offense and another six on the felony. He was taken into custody as soon as the hearing ended.
Based on the statute under which Duarte was charged, he will not have to register as a sex offender, his lawyer said.
In a summary of the prosecution’s evidence, Roanoke Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney John McNeil said the two offenses occurred while Duarte was on duty and was taking female prisoners to the Roanoke City Jail.
In the first instance, which occurred Dec. 2, 2015, McNeil said security camera footage showed Duarte bringing a woman into the jail, talking with her briefly, then leaving with her and going back out to his car.
McNeil said the woman can be heard telling Duarte, “No one has to know.”
The woman later told investigators they rode a short distance from the jail, parked and then engaged in oral sex.
“The mere fact that she was in custody and he was a police officer made her feel like she had no choice in the matter,” McNeil said.
He said the woman reported the incident while she was being processed into custody. Duarte was interviewed by police officials and “taken off the road” within hours.
A police spokesman said earlier this year that Duarte’s last day with the force was Dec. 3, 2015, but he declined to elaborate, saying it was a personnel matter.
The second incident came to light in March. McNeil said a woman charged with a petty offense in Roanoke County told investigators that she had been arrested on a shoplifting charge in Roanoke in September 2015. While being taken to jail by Duarte, he had stopped in a motel parking lot where he parked, exposed himself and placed her hand on his privates, she said. McNeil said she rejected the advance and they continued on to jail from there.
Neither woman is being identified in this story because The Roanoke Times does not name victims of sexual assault.
“These are cases we have wrestled with for months,” McNeil told Judge David Carson. He said the circumstances of the cases complicated the prospects of going to trial. Both witnesses had expressed reluctance to testify, he said, and they approved of the agreement.
“They both want to move on,” he said.
Defense attorney David Damico added that there were “significant issues that would’ve potentially affected the credibility of the witnesses,” and that there was little evidence that force had been involved in either case.
Under the initial indictments, Duarte had faced the possibility of maximum sentences of life plus 20 years in prison.
“He exercised monumentally bad judgment,” Damico said. “We see this as a pragmatic solution to a difficult situation.”
Asked by Carson whether he wanted to make a statement before his conviction, Duarte declined.
Both sides in the case have exercised extreme discretion as the matter has moved forward through the courts. Most relevant court documents were placed under seal, and members of the media were barred from an evidentiary hearing in September — on a motion from the defense — while recordings were played. The windows of the courtroom doors were also covered during that hearing.