The application process for becoming a Fort Collins police officer is tough. There are exams, interviews and even polygraphs involved. The purpose behind this multi-step process is to find candidates who are upstanding, law abiding citizens. I know of someone who was denied at the last step for admitting to being at a party in college where some people were smoking marijuana. Even though the applicant did not partake, he was denied because the department felt he should have never been there in the first place. Mind you, marijuana is legal in the state of Colorado– just FYI. Other police departments must have a similar application procedure, as one man admitted his secret and was not only disqualified from the job, he is also facing criminal charges. During the interview, the candidate admitted to committing a date rape. He explained that he had a sexual encounter with a woman after a night of drinking and that he recorded it on his cell phone. The police department reached out to the woman and she told them she had not consented to having sex with the man, nor was she aware that he recorded it. Not only is his future as a police officer over, the man is facing criminal charges for Sexual Assault. Do you still think the police are not biased?
Larimer County Sexual Assault Attorney: What is the Definition of Sexual Assault?
The Colorado law definition of Sexual Assault in Larimer, Grand, and Boulder County – C.R.S. 18-3-402 – is:
(a) The actor causes submission of the victim by means of sufficient consequence reasonably calculated to cause submission against the victim’s will; or
(b) The actor knows that the victim is incapable of appraising the nature of the victim’s conduct; or
(c) The actor knows that the victim submits erroneously, believing the actor to be the victim’s spouse; or
(d) At the time of the commission of the act, the victim is less than fifteen years of age and the actor is at least four years older than the victim and is not the spouse of the victim; or
(e) At the time of the commission of the act, the victim is at least fifteen years of age but less than seventeen years of age and the actor is at least ten years older than the victim and is not the spouse of the victim; or
(f) The victim is in custody of law or detained in a hospital or other institution and the actor has supervisory or disciplinary authority over the victim and uses this position of authority to coerce the victim to submit, unless the act is incident to a lawful search; or
(g) The actor, while purporting to offer a medical service, engages in treatment or examination of a victim for other than a bona fide medical purpose or in a manner substantially inconsistent with reasonable medical practices; or
(h) The victim is physically helpless and the actor knows the victim is physically helpless and the victim has not consented.
Many times in date rape cases, both parties are intoxicated, which, in essence, makes the victim physically helpless – matching part h of the above definition. But how do you decide who the victim is if both parties are drunk? Often, and unfairly, the finger is pointed at the man. It doesn’t matter that he was just as drunk or even more so at the time the sexual encounter occurred. It is automatically assumed that if the girl was drunk, she did not consent, no matter what the man’s condition was.
What is the Sentence / Punishment for Police Candidate Sexual Assault or Date Rape in Fort Collins?
As a class 4 felony in Fort Collins, Loveland, and Estes Park, Sexual Assault is punishable by 2 to 6 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections. However, under certain circumstances, Sexual Assault can be punishable with an indeterminate sentence, sentencing a minimum amount of time but no maximum. A person convicted of Sexual Assault will also be required to register as a sex offender and may have to comply with the Colorado SOMB’s harsh restrictions if parole or probation are part of the sentence.