In an apparently unusual plea settlement, an Alabama state trooper was ordered 6 months in prison for raping a woman who made a distress call after a car accident in December 2015.
Alabama State Trooper Samuel H. McHenry II pleaded guilty to misdemeanour sexual conduct in a settlement with the prosecution which would also involve the revocation of the state certification, as well as register as a sex offender. He was also fined $500 and was ordered not to contact the victim. The 6-month sentence could be served at the discretion of the convicted within the next year. The original charge of the case was rape and sodomy, following which he was briefly arrested and released on bail bond, apart from being terminated from law enforcement after serving since 2009.
The plea was offered by the office of the Alabama Attorney General, but the defence attorney McGowan Williamson denied any knowledge of the victim’s agreement to the settlement. The settlement was reached after three hours of negotiation, according to Judge J. MacDonald Russell Jr. “I’ve never refused a plea bargain that the parties have hammered out and worked on since they know the facts,” said Judge Russell in a statement to the AP.
That does not change the fact that the State Trooper had serious allegations against him which involved forcing a woman to have sex with him, who he arrested following her call from a scene of a car accident. As per the affidavit, she was arrested for possessing an empty nasal spray and a bottle of pills in her car on December 7 and was taken to another location off the Interstate 65 where McHenry forced her to perform sexual acts, including oral sex, and threatened her with jail time. The episode ended around 1:45 am.
According to the Associated Press, the 36-year-old McHenry had not been cooperating in providing saliva samples to the prosecution for a full investigation and his patrol car was tested positive for the presence of semen. The rape kit of the victim was also obtained after examination shortly after the incident.
Original Source: thedailybeast
