A Texas woman has filed a civil rights complaint stemming from a May 2014 sexual assault in a border town jail.
Felipe Peralez
A Texas woman was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a former La Joya police officer and when his superior officers saw the video footage they failed to offer her medical care, a lawsuit says.
According to the complaint, the episode began on May 29, 2014, when the woman, who is identified under the pseudonym "Autumn Renee," was arrested for an outstanding warrant and booked into the La Joya City Jail.
While in custody, Renee was subjected to an "all night invasion" by communications officer Felipe Peralez, the lawsuit says.
Renee claims that Peralez "inserted his fingers and hand into her vaginal area and buttocks" and forced her to "masturbate him" with her hand. She says the abuse lasted for hours "causing her to cry out in pain and fear of what was happening and what may be forthcoming."
When Renee reported the incident to Peralez's superiors, she was brought into the chief's office where they took her statement, viewed the video recording, and "offered her tacos," the lawsuit says.
Renee says that after the meeting the officers declined her request for medical attention and released her to a female officer from Penitas, who transported her to the County Jail.
She claims that while she was being transferred, she told the officer driving her about the assault and the officer suggested that she should forget about the incident and go on with her life, because "people come up missing all the time in the valley," the lawsuit says.
The next day, Peralez was suspended and he later resigned from the police department.
La Joya Police
Months later in December 2014, while conducting a different criminal investigation, Texas Ranger Bobby Garcia learned about the alleged sexual assault and began to interview people involved in the May 2014 incident, according to court documents.
One La Joya police officer, Jose Bustillos, told Garcia that on the night of the incident his colleague called him and told Bustillos to return to the station because Peralez was acting strange and wasn't stationed at his dispatch desk.
When Bustillos got back to the station he found Peralez in the female cell area and observed him standing in front of Renee who had "one hand on her breast," according to Bustillos' statement.
Bustillos told Garcia that when he asked Peralez what he was doing in the female cell area, he said that Peralez told him that he was there because Renee wasn't feeling well. Bustillos said that later that night when he asked Peralez to look over some paperwork Peralez was "trembling" and his "hands were shaking."
The Penitas police officer who later drove Renee to the County Jail, Elizabeth Garza, said in her statement to Garcia that during the transfer Renee told Garza "I got fucked in jail" and divulged the details of the assault. Garza told Garcia she contacted her superiors who told her to write a report.
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/1tkjnqP
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