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Fullerton Cop Accused of Sexually Assaulting 12 Women
Photo by carl ballou via Shutterstock
Is something just completely rotten in the city of Fullerton? As two cops face charges in the beating death of a schizophrenic homeless man, another was involved in a recently settled lawsuit against the city which claimed that he sexually assaulted several women while on duty.
KTLA reports that Officer Albert Rincon was accused of arresting women and then groping them. The lawsuit is on behalf of two women, but court records show that since 2008, at least 12 women have made the same accusations against Rincon.
Rincon admitted to not calling in a female officer or a backup officer to witness the arrests, which male officers are supposed to do when arresting women, and he also admitted to turning off his audio recorder while walking his victims to the patrol car.
When asked why he disabled the device, Rincon gave no explanation.
One might assume that this is the kind of behavior that could get someone pretty seriously disciplined. Instead, good old Fullerton PD investigated the claims of the victims, and, reports KTLA, "reprimanded Rincon for violating the city's pat-down policy."
Rincon was briefly placed on administrative leave, then put back on the streets until two months ago, when the current lawsuit was filed. According to KTLA, federal Judge Andrew Guilford wasn't pleased with the way the city handled Rincon:
Judge Guilford says that, "At the end of the day, the City put Rincon back on the streets to continue arresting women, despite a pattern of sexual harassment allegations." "A reasonable juror could conclude based on these facts, that the City simply did not care what its officer did to women during arrests."
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