Following allegations leveled against the LAPD as far back back as 2009, two veteran police officers were charged Tuesday for allegedly sexually assaulting multiple women while on duty. The Los Angeles Times reports charges against officers James Christopher Nichols and Luis Gustavo Valenzuela include rape under color of authority, oral copulation under the color of authority, and forcible rape. Valenzuela faces an additional charge of assault with a fire arm for allegedly pointing a gun at one of his victims. Four women currently pressing charges claim their assaults occurred between December 2008 and March 2011.
In a previous report on the attacks from 2013, the Los Angeles Times outlined a harrowing account by a woman who claimed that she was stopped by the two officers, arrested without cause, and forced to perform oral sex.
Sometime in late 2009, according to the warrant, two officers driving a Jetta pulled up alongside her as she was walking her dog in Hollywood. The officers, whom she recognized as the same cops who had arrested her in a previous encounter, ordered her into the car, the woman recounted. It is not known why she was arrested.
According to NBC Los Angeles, "Prosecutors will ask that bail be set at $3.83 million for Nichols and $3.76 million for Valenzuela." If convicted on the aforementioned counts both Nichols and Valenzuela will face up to life in prison.
