On Thursday, Daniel Holtzclaw, the ex-Oklahoma City police officer convicted of raping multiple African-American women while on duty, was sentented to 263 consecutive years in a federal prison.
This decision comes one month after Holtzclaw was charged and found guilty of 18 out of 36 counts, including several rape charges. The former officer was accused of targeting his victims, all of whom were black women with criminal histories, including one who was 17 years old at the time of the assault. Holtzclaw chose poor, vulnerable women whom he thought would be too afraid to report him.
“I didn’t think nobody was going to believe me anyway,” one woman said. “And I’m a drug addict, so the only way I knew to handle it was to go and get high and try to block it out, to make it seem like it didn’t happen.”
The first woman to come forward was Jannie Ligons, a 57-year-old grandmother. According to the Associated Press, Ligons said that she was driving home after 2 a.m. when Holtzclaw pulled her over on suspicion of drunk driving. After asking her if she had been drinking, he ordered Ligons to get into the back of his squad car where he exposed himself to her and forced her to perform oral sex on him.
“He stopped me…for no reason whatsoever and fondled me and did certain things to me,” Ligons said at a press conference last month. During her assault, Ligons explained, she was fearful that Holtzclaw was going to kill her. “All I could see was my life flash before my eyes and his gun in his holster on his right side.”
It was Ligons’ testimony that led to Holtzclaw’s crimes being revealed. After an internal investigation, he was fired from the police force in January 2015.
“Your offenses committed against women in our community constitute the greatest abuse of police authority I have witnessed in my 37 years as a member of this agency,” wrote Oklahoma City Police Chief William Citty in the termination letter, according to CNN. “These violations more than warrant your termination from the Oklahoma City Police Department.
“Justice was done today, and a criminal wearing a uniform is going to prison now,” Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater told the Associated Press.