A cop in Lakewood, Colorado offered a woman a ride home, kissed her, raped her in the back of his patrol car, and then sped off. The officer admitted to kissing the woman and used the excuse that his “impulses got the best of him.”
Lakewood Police Department Officer Randall Butler, 37, was arrested on Dec. 5 charged with two felony counts of sexual assault. Per an investigation Butler resigned on November 26.
Butler is married and has two kids.
Reports from CBS Denver show that on Nov. 16 around 11 p.m., then Officer Butler offered a ride to a woman who had become stranded. Butler drove the woman to a vacant parking lot and sexual assault her. Butler then left the victim and drove away in his patrol car.
According to an affidavit, the woman said she had been involved in an argument with a friend at a bar. She went to a nearby business to use a phone to call for a ride, but the phone did not work.
It was then that Butler pulled up and asked if the woman was okay. She said she was and just needed a ride home. Butler said, “OK” and then drove away, according to the affidavit.
The woman started to walk toward her home and was a few blocks away when Butler pulled up next to her again. Butler offered her a ride for a second time, which the woman agreed to. Butler got out of the car and opened the back door for her to get inside, according to the affidavit.
But instead of taking the woman home Butler drove to a deserted parking lot which is when he opened the back door for her and asked for her number, which she gave to him.
Butler then said,
“You look like you want to kiss me.”
Butler began to kiss the woman and touch her. Butler asked her if she had a condom. Then, he raped her over the back seat of the police car. Afterward, he got back in the car and sped away.
The woman ran down the alley to a 7-Eleven to use their phone and called her mom, telling her she’d been sexually assaulted by a cop.
She went to a hospital where she said a nurse made her “feel like pure trash,” according to the affidavit. They said she’d need to call police and would have to go to another hospital for an exam. At that point, the woman said she gave up, though she stayed “heartbroken” over it and was “scared as hell to talk to the police about it,” the affidavit reads.
On Nov. 17, the woman used www.SeekThenSpeak.org to report the sexual assault.
When a detective first started investigating the incident Butler stated he had picked up a woman to give her a courtesy ride on the night in question. Butler claimed that when he was dropping her off, she started kissing him and that “his impulses got the best of him.”
In a press release, the Lakewood Police Department said this:
“The appalling and inexcusable conduct in no way embodies the Lakewood Police Department’s mission to serve and protect with integrity, intelligence and initiative. This behavior has no place in our department and will never be tolerated. The arrest of Butler is demoralizing to our organization. As this investigation continues, our top priorities are to remain committed to the safety and well-being of the victim, and to the pursuit of justice for our community.”
