Paper: HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Date: TUE 08/16/05

Life on hold for victim of officer rape/Judge approves $2 million award, but collection is not very likely

By HARVEY RICE
Staff

Every time the memory returns, so do the headaches.

So the woman, now 20, tries to suppress the memory of the night she was raped by a rogue Houston police officer more than four years ago.

"I know it's back there," she said in an interview, "but I don't deal with it."

U.S. District Judge John Rainey recently approved a recommendation to award the young woman $2 million for the suffering that she says she still endures because of the attack by James McMichael.

But her attorney, Ralphaell Wilkins, says the chances of collecting very much are "slim to none." The judge dropped the city of Houston from the lawsuit, and McMichael is serving a 50-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to aggravated sexual assault of a child.

The Houston Police Department has gone to great lengths to keep people such as McMichael out of its ranks, said spokesman Capt. Dwayne Ready. Still, he said, there are times when someone slips past the screening tests, psychological tests and observation by training officers.

"It's not a perfect system; it's a human system," Ready said. "It's subject to human failings."

HPD received reports of 908 sexual assaults in 2004, said Kelly Young, a spokeswoman for the Houston Area Women's Center.

"We know that is a small amount of the actual rapes," Young said, noting that the center's rape line received 4,000 calls last year.

The experience is especially traumatic for victims of an authority figure such as a clergyman or police officer, she said.

"When they use that power to violate you, it adds an additional fear level," Young said.

In one of the few times she has discussed the attack, the victim of that rape talked with the Chronicle about how the night of July 18, 2001, changed her life . The newspaper agreed not to identify her because of the nature of the crime.

She was a 16-year-old sophomore at Humble High School, taking honors courses with plans to attend the University of Texas, she said. She was a trainer on the men's and women's sports teams, hoping for a career in that field.

McMichael, then 44, had been suspended for 30 days in 1999 for failing to record a traffic stop and notify a dispatcher that he was transporting a female. Another complaint surfaced in May 2001, when a woman reported he had molested her after stopping her for an alleged traffic violation.

Sting was planned

Relating that incident in her recommendation that the $2 million award be approved, U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Johnson called McMichael's actions "despicable."

"Suffice it to say that the officer allegedly used his authority, threats of arrest and (more subtly) his weapon to effect the sexual assault" Johnson wrote.

The Police Department's internal affairs division launched a sting operation, obtaining a "pocket" arrest warrant that could be served on McMichael if the sting succeeded.

The sting was postponed, however, after he called in sick.

Shortly after midnight on his first day back on patrol, he spotted the student and her boyfriend. The couple had parked on Lee near Bush Intercontinental Airport, watching planes take off and land.

The woman said McMichael did not identify himself as a police officer, but ordered the boyfriend to turn off the inside light and open a rear door. She said she was frightened and asked her boyfriend to drive away, but McMichael followed without using his emergency lights.

The couple, who did not have cell phones, drove to a motel and the boyfriend got out to seek help, she said.

"He literally is trying to drag me with him," said the woman, who was in high heels and a dress that made running difficult. "I said, `I'll be fine.' "

They didn't know that the fully lighted motel was closed for renovation. While the boyfriend searched for help, McMichael pulled up and turned on his emergency lights.

He disabled the boyfriend's car by pulling the spark plug wires, then drove the woman to an abandoned construction site, she said. He threatened to take her to jail, but offered a deal: "Instead of spending so much time with that boy, how about spending time with me?"

She said she thought he was offering to mentor her, and she consented. As he drove away from the site, she recalled, "I thought I was going home."

But then she realized McMichael was heading away from her home. She questioned him, but he replied, "Shhhh."

As they drove into a clearing in the woods, she said, she believed that he meant to kill her.

"I was basically praying," she recalled. "I was certain this was the end of my life ."

After raping her, the officer told her not to speak because there might be a listening device in the car. Court records show there was no listening device, but internal affairs investigators had installed a tracking device.

The woman said she felt "completely disgusted, completely sick." McMichael took her home, she said, but her parents were out of town.

She called her boyfriend, who later told police he had phoned his mother after leaving the victim. He said he had not realized the danger and regretted leaving her alone.

She said he picked her up, but she wouldn't tell him what had happened. Still, he phoned his aunt, a police officer, and the investigation that led to McMichael's guilty plea began.

Can't move on

The woman said she still isn't able to move on with life . She dropped out of high school, explaining that, "I couldn't stand to be in a place with that many people."

She said she has never spoken with her parents about the rape and no longer goes to church because she feels "dirty." She has nightmares, she said, and doubts she'll ever have a physical relationship with a man.

That's a typical reaction, said Young, of the women's center.

"One of the hardest things for people to remember is they carry a tremendous amount of shame that is misplaced," she said.

The damage never fully heals, Young added.

"It takes time to refill your soul with things that are good in the world," she said.

The woman still hopes to attend college.

"That would be the greatest thing in the world," she said. "But right now, I can't get there."

Collecting data

HPD officials said they have no data on how often officers use their authority to commit sex crimes. Michael Quinn, author of Walking with the Devil, a book on police ethics, said such misconduct is relatively rare.

In the Houston area, former Conroe school district police officer Donald P. Mauro was sentenced to 160 years in prison in June for sexually assaulting four students.

Last year, Houston police officer Lance W. Elliott resigned after being accused of having sex with a suspected shoplifter. He denied the charge but received a 30-day jail sentence after pleading guilty to tampering with a government record.