SALEM, Mass. — The night was supposed to be her 23rd birthday celebration. Instead, in the wee hours of Sept. 26, 2008, the mother of two was drunk on a city street, teetering in 4-inch platform shoes and trying to find her ride home.
Enter Lawrence police Officer Kevin Sledge, in full uniform, who had left his assignment in the police station booking room moments before to get something to eat.
According to lawyers on both sides of the case, Sledge was at Jackson and Haverhill streets when he spotted the petite brunette and told her a pretty girl like her shouldn't be out at that time of night. She got into what she thought was a police car and Sledge drove her back to the station.
A Superior Court jury must now decide if Sledge, 48, of Salem, N.H., kidnapped, raped and indecently assaulted the woman in the parking lot next to the 90 Lowell St. police station. The trial is expected to last all week. It's unclear if Sledge, a 15-year veteran of the Lawrence Police Department, will take the stand. Jurors will be bused from Salem to Lawrence today to visit several locations, including the parking lot next to the police station.
"She was an easy mark," said prosecutor Kate MacDougall in her opening argument yesterday. "Would she even remember? And if she did, who would believe her?"
The combination of Sledge's position and the woman's drunken condition allowed the police officer "to do whatever he wanted to do for hours," MacDougall said. Sick and drifting in and out of sleep, MacDougall said the woman lay curled up in a ball in the passenger's seat of Sledge's personal vehicle in the parking lot. On four or five occasions, Sledge left the police station and returned to his car to fondle, rape and indecently assault the woman, MacDougall said.
Sledge is charged with kidnapping, rape and three counts of indecent assault. Sledge left the police station and came back to the car on four or five occasions that morning, the woman testified yesterday.
She said she woke up when Sledge was touching her hair, buttocks and leg, when he was laying on top of her, and when his hand was in her pants.
"I was just telling him to stop and leave me alone," she said.
The woman also said she repeatedly told Sledge to call her girlfriend, who she came to Lawrence with earlier in the night but got separated from.
But defense attorney John Morris said the only thing Sledge did that morning was try help a young woman who was stranded in downtown Lawrence.
"He was a police officer on his way to get some food. He was not preying on anybody," Morris said.
Under cross-examination yesterday, the woman said Sledge's car was not locked when he left her in the parking lot that morning. The woman said after Sledge indecently assaulted her, she fell asleep in the car.
"He didn't do anything to prevent you from leaving that car?" Morris asked.
"Correct," the woman said.
"Your testimony is he had just done some indecent things to you and you just rolled over and went to sleep?" Morris said.
"Yes," the woman answered, as tears streamed down her face.
Morris also questioned the woman about differences between her grand jury testimony and what she testified to yesterday. He asked the woman to quantify what she drank the evening, which included a combination of beer, shots and Washington apple martinis.
After leaving The Loft on Essex Street that night, the woman said she became separated from her girlfriend. As she searched for her girlfriend's car, the woman said she dropped and damaged her cell phone. She also accepted a ride from three men in a van who offered to help her find her friend.
Sledge has been on unpaid suspension from the Police Department since he was indicted by the Essex County grand jury in the case. His wife and two sisters were present in the courtroom yesterday, Morris said.
Over the years, Sledge was disciplined numerous times. In 2005, Sledge was arrested at his Salem, N.H., home and his girlfriend was issued a summons to appear in court after they accused each other of assault and battery. At that time he was stripped of his gun and badge and placed on modified duty in the police station, but was eventually returned to duty. In 1999, Sledge was placed on leave after he was charged with raping an ex-girlfriend. He was found not guilty of those charges and returned to duty. And in January 2004, he was placed on administrative leave before pleading guilty in Concord, N.H., District Court to a misdemeanor charge of tampering with a New Hampshire public record.
Investigators found he used a fake Lawrence address several years earlier when he got a license to sell cars in New Hampshire. That led to the tampering charge and he was fined $500.
