Records: SDPD Officer Accused Of Sexual Assault Resigned And Never Charged
Speaker 1: 00:00 Newly released records are giving us far more specific details about a San Diego police officer's alleged sexual assault of a woman in 2013. The records are from an internal police investigation and they raise questions as to why the officer was never charged with a crime. Hey, PBS investigative report. Claire Traeger, Sir taught with evening edition Anchor Ebony Monet about the documents and as a warning, the story has disturbing content. Speaker 2: 00:28 So Clarence start off by giving us some background of this alleged assault. Sure. So in 2013, officer Donald Moncrief was called to the OTA Mesa port of entry to pick up a woman who is trying to drive a stolen car into Mexico and he was supposed to transport her to prison in his police car. Uh, the woman who is not named in the documents then, uh, later alleged that Moncrief sexually assaulted her. She said that he asked her to masturbate while he masturbated and that he asked her for sex and that he touched her breasts before dropping her off at prison. And we now have even more details about what allegedly happened. What do they tell us? Well, the, the documents really show that there was a lot of evidence that supports what the woman says. Uh, the investigators who wrote the report called Moncrief behavior quote, highly suspect. Here's a quote from that report, Speaker 3: 01:23 officer [inaudible] account of what occurred is highly suspect and even if it were to be believed, demonstrates a complete lack of common sense and judgment. Speaker 2: 01:33 And investigators had a harsh reaction to the officer's account of, of what happened, calling it highly suspect. Why so? Well, for several reasons. Uh, the woman was a known Mexican gang member and bullets were found in her car, but Moncrief never searched her and took her handcuffs off at some point during the 25 mile drive to Los Colinas detention facility in Santi. Uh, here's another quote. He told investigators, Speaker 3: 02:00 to be honest with you, I don't search females. I don't. Speaker 2: 02:04 Moncrieff also said he drove a direct route and did not stop on the way to prison. But tracking of his squad car showed he stopped multiple times during the trip. Moncrief claimed that in the days and weeks that followed, he did not call the woman at all, but telephone records show that he called and texted the woman 26 times. So those are alarming contradictions. But you comb through these documents, what stood out to you? Well, the biggest thing that stood out was how appalled that the investigators seem to be with Moncrief claims. Um, here's one thing that they said, Speaker 3: 02:36 officer Moncrief inept, lackadaisical attitude towards officer safety is deplorable. Speaker 2: 02:42 Uh, they also seem to be completely incredulous of his story. Speaker 3: 02:46 Officer Moncrief had no reasonable explanation for why he would have driven a masturbating female prisoner to a remote location to re hand cover. Speaker 2: 02:56 So Claire, what ended up happening to this? Basically nothing. He was allowed to resign before going through a full administrator review. And while police sex crime investigators forwarded the case of the San Diego district attorney, he was never charged. I asked Dan Gilliam a lawyer who represented the woman in a later civil lawsuit against the city about this. And here's what he said. The Da is not going to file against a police officer unless she has to and the only way she's ever gonna be forced to do it is if the media pay attention to it. So players, since he was allowed to resign without fully being reviewed, we've seen in the past that sometimes officers will simply just apply for another position at a different district. Is there anything in place to prevent that from happening in this case? What's next? Basically, I only know it w because he resigned before going through with this review. Speaker 2: 03:48 It means that future employers may never know that anything bad even happened. I talked to a San Diego police spokesman and he told me if someone resigns to avoid an administrative review and then applies to work at another law enforcement agency, that future employer may not know anything had happened. The only way they might find out would be if during a background check the supervisor or peer told the employer there was supposed to be a review. Okay. VBS, investigative reporter Claire Traeger. Sir, thanks so much. Thank you. Kate reached out to Moncrief and did not receive a response Speaker 4: 04:25 [inaudible].
