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Saturday 19 December 2009
Illegally Park-ed

No one disputes that an on-duty Irvine police officer got an erection and ejaculated on a motorist during an early-morning traffic stop in Laguna Beach. The female driver reported it, DNA testing confirmed it and officer David Alex Park finally admitted it.

When the case went to trial, however, defense attorney Al Stokke argued that Park wasn’t responsible for making sticky all over the woman’s sweater. He insisted that she made the married patrolman make the mess—after all, she was on her way home from work as a dancer at Captain Cream Cabaret.

“She got what she wanted,” said Stokke. “She’s an overtly sexual person.”

A jury of one woman and 11 men—many white and in their 50s or 60s—agreed with Stokke. On Feb. 2, after a half-day of deliberations, they found Park not guilty of three felony charges that he’d used his badge to win sexual favors during the December 2004 traffic stop.

Park, 31, was red-faced and unable to control his twitching foot in the moments before the verdict was announced; if convicted, he would have faced prison. When he was found not guilty, he briefly embraced Stokke. In the public seating section, tears flowed from his gray-haired mother’s face. His father, a mechanic, closed his eyes and threw his head back. Outside the courtroom, surrounded by his family, a smiling Park said he felt vindicated.

Veteran sex crimes prosecutor Shaddi Kamiabipour—who’d called Park “a predator” during the nine-day trial—said she was disappointed with the verdicts. She also dismissed Stokke’s contention that the Orange County District Attorney’s office had overcharged the case. At stake, Kamiabipour said, was the principle that no one—not even a horny cop who’d once won honors for community service—is above the law.

“Park didn’t pick a housewife or a 17-year-old girl,” Kamiabipour said in her closing argument. “He picked a stripper. He picked the perfect victim.”

Notes

  1. uglycunt reblogged this from azspot
  2. upmountains reblogged this from faketrain
  3. radeladle reblogged this from humantype2
  4. daytodaynerdhood reblogged this from backseatphilosopher and added:
    …WHAT THE FUCK.
  5. tenfeettall reblogged this from seaponies and added:
    This is why I hate men
  6. faketrain reblogged this from humantype2 and added:
    WHAT THE FUCK, WORLD. WHAT THE FUCK. HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN.
  7. lipglossblackleather reblogged this from shaanmichael
  8. qitten reblogged this from seaponies
  9. onebadapple reblogged this from gonnaruinyrshoes and added:
    It’s really so frightening that a woman has to be PERFECT - a god-damned Virgin Mary - in order to get any kind of...
  10. nikorette reblogged this from azspot
  11. seaponies reblogged this from seanxvx
  12. mondosmusicbox reblogged this from ratsandcandy666 and added:
    Orange County never disappoints…
  13. backseatphilosopher reblogged this from boltupright and added:
    Ugh. Faith in the judicial system -1000
  14. humantype2 reblogged this from ratsandcandy666 and added:
    elengberg:clingtomymouth:shaanmichael:azspot:...was just about to post a link to this. i...
  15. ratsandcandy666 reblogged this from elengberg and added:
    God I love our judicial system.
  16. seanxvx reblogged this from elengberg and added:
    FUUUUUCK EVERYTHING
  17. jast reblogged this from thecurvature
  18. meloukhia reblogged this from kaninchenzero and added:
    Oh, humanity, you fail to even disappoint me anymore because my expectations are so low.
  19. boltupright reblogged this from archiloquy and added:
    JURY OF YOUR PEERS. JURY OF YOUR PEERS! “She’s sexual, ergo she deserves abuse.” I cannot even begin.
  20. blackenedbutterfly reblogged this from shaanmichael
  21. archiloquy reblogged this from abbyjean
  22. shiyiya reblogged this from kaninchenzero and added:
    Urgh. That’s completely disgusting. I can’t believe a jury bought that defense. Or rather, I don’t *want* to believe...
  23. kaninchenzero reblogged this from abbyjean and added:
    Remember if you’re a sex worker you can be sexually assaulted with impunity. I hate this world.
  24. thecurvature reblogged this from abbyjean and added:
    This makes me want to cry.
  25. abbyjean reblogged this from azspot
  26. azspot posted this

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