SALEM, Mass. — Two superior officers testified on-duty cops always take a police car to grab a bite to eat in case they have to respond to an emergency.
But the night Officer Kevin Sledge allegedly raped a 23-year-old woman, he left his post in the police station's booking room in his Jaguar. He is accused of then picking up the drunken woman, driving her back to a parking lot next to the police station, and leaving her in his car.
She says she was sick and drifting in and out of sleep that night in September 2008, but remembers Sledge returning to the car four or five times to rape, fondle and indecently assault her.
Yesterday, the trial continued for Sledge who stands charged with rape, kidnapping and indecent assault. Prosecutor Kate MacDougall said Sledge used his position as a police officer to prey on a young woman who was intoxicated. But Sledge's attorney John Morris said his client was trying to help the woman who he found dangerously stranded in downtown Lawrence.
Police Sgt. John Dushame and Sgt. Steven Scheffen both testified they were working the early morning shift on the night of Sept. 26, 2008. Scheffen, who was the shift commander at the time, said a cruiser was available for Sledge, the booking officer, to use that morning.
In times past, Sledge had asked Scheffen if he could leave the station to get food. While Scheffen had never denied him permission, on this morning, Sledge did not call him, but instead told civilian dispatcher Glenn Arlequeeuw he was "stepping out for 10 to 15 minutes."
Arlequeeuw, in testimony yesterday, said he specifically asked Sledge if he was going to get something to eat because he was hungry.
Sledge replied, "No," Arlequeeuw said.
Morris, while cross-examining Dushame, asked him if he knew of a "written policy" that prohibited on-duty officers from leaving the station in their personal cars.
"To the best of my knowledge, you're not supposed to be taking your own car," Dushame said. "I recall being told that, but I'm not sure if it's written down somewhere."
Morris also pressed Dushame on the condition of the woman when she came to the front lobby of the police station with her girlfriend to later report the incident. Dushame said he didn't remember the woman's hair or clothing being disheveled or damaged. She was crying and visibly upset, he said.
He said he could "clearly detect the odor of alcohol" on her breath. Her speech was somewhat slurred "but I could clearly tell what she was saying," Dushame said.
The woman, in testimony Tuesday, said she had vomited right outside Sledge's car in the parking lot when her girlfriend arrived at the police station to pick her up that night. However, when questioned by Morris yesterday, Dushame said when he investigated the parking lot, he found vomit 15 feet away from Sledge's car.
Tuesday, the woman also testified the car wasn't locked that morning and Sledge didn't prevent her from leaving the car.
Under questioning yesterday by MacDougall, Dushame and Scheffen also testified that officers are required to report to dispatch if they are transporting a female or a child. The officers must call in their starting and ending mileage for liability reasons, the officers said.
Scheffen said that morning, after the woman and her girlfriend went to the police station to file a complaint, Sledge told him, "I went to get something to eat and now she's claiming I inappropriately touched her?" Scheffen said. Sledge told him he ran into the woman on Jackson Street and "she appeared intoxicated so I brought her back to the station."
Scheffen said officers do place intoxicated people into "protective custody" for reasons such as intoxication. But those people are taken to Lawrence General Hospital for evaluation, not back to the police station, he said.
The 14 members of the jury, six men and eight women, also took a 42-mile round trip from Salem Superior Court to Lawrence yesterday morning. The jurors viewed the area of Jawoa's on Common Street and The Loft on Essex Street, bars the woman went to that night, and Casa de Sirena at Jackson and Haverhill streets, the restaurant where Sledge went for food that morning and allegedly encountered the woman.
The jurors made a final stop at the police station, where they walked by the front desk and shift supervisor's office. They viewed the booking room, a nearby hallway and bathroom and surveillance cameras in the area. They also walked to the parking lot adjacent to the police station.
Sledge has been on unpaid suspension from the Police Department since he was indicted by an Essex County grand jury in the case.
Sledge, a 15-year department veteran acquitted of a separate rape charge in 1999, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. His trial started Tuesday and is expected to last through the week.
