Saturday, February 5, 2011

A black cop has been found guilty of rape and three counts of indecent assault and battery involving an inebriated woman while he was on duty in 2008

Suspended Lawrence police officer Kevin Sledge's girlfriend erupted into an emotional tirade as the verdicts were read in Newburyport Superior Court, and a man in the audience yelled at the jurors that they were racist. Jurors deliberated for nearly two straight days in the retrial against the 17-year police veteran. His first trial ended in a hung jury. As the guilty findings on all four counts were read by the jury foreman, Bernice Aguirre sobbed and started screaming, "No, he's not! No, he's not! He's not guilty," Aguirre yelled, as a half-dozen court officers raced to quiet her and remove her from the courtroom. "What am I going to tell my children?" she screamed as the officers dragged her from the High Street courthouse. Then, a man Sledge previously said was his older brother, looked to the jury and said, "You're racists." Afterward, the man refused to identify himself or explain why he made the statement. Sledge, 48, of Salem, N.H., faces up to 20 years in jail on the rape charge and two and a half years to five years in jail on each indecent assault and battery charge.

No comments: