A pol outraged by rape allegations against two Brooklyn cops is pursuing legislation to make it a crime for NYPD officers to have sex with people they arrest or stop.
Councilman Mark Treyger (D-Brooklyn) said he’s drafting legislation that would make it illegal for a cop to engage in sexual activity with someone in police custody, in a police car, or in the course of an arrest or law enforcement action.
“Our laws regarding sexual consent must be brought into line with basic common sense, empathy, and human decency,” said Treyger, who represents the area where a Brooklyn teen says two NYPD detectives assaulted her after taking her into custody on a drug charge.
The 18-year-old victim says Brooklyn South Narcotics Detectives Edward Martins and Richard Hall handcuffed her and took her to a Coney Island parking lot last month where one officer raped her and both forced her to perform a sex act.
The cops, who have been demoted and stripped of their guns and shields, say the sex was consensual.
Treyger says it should be a crime either way.
“What occurred was deeply, morally wrong. Regardless of legal outcomes, we know that it is wrong for two police officers to use their positions of authority to engage in sexual activity with a teenager,” he said.
“The abuse of power exercised by these two detectives rattles the foundations of positive police-community relations that the law enforcement community has been working to build.”
It’s against NYPD policy for officers to have sex on duty, and cops can be charged with the broad offense of official misconduct, which bars the misuse of official authority to obtain a personal benefit. But nothing in city law makes the behavior explicitly illegal.
Under state law, sex between a corrections officer and an inmate is considered rape because a person in custody cannot give consent. The same standard applies to jails within police stations, but not to police custody more broadly.
The city can’t change felony rape law — which Treyger said he’d also push state officials to amend — but can create a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.
The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mayor de Blasio was asked on Tuesday if a person in police custody can consent to sex with a police officer.
“I don’t see how that’s possible, honestly,” he said. “As a broad notion I find it very troubling.”
With Jillian Jorgensen
