Global Courant 2023-05-05 13:58:37
A former Alabama deputy sheriff pleaded guilty Wednesday to sexually assaulting a woman during a 2020 traffic stop.
The Justice Department said 32-year-old Joshua Davidson, who was working as a deputy sheriff in the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office at the time, apprehended the woman in Selma on Jan. 30, 2020, before taking her into custody and assaulting her.
Substitute information and plea papers revealed that Davidson drove the woman “down a dark road to an abandoned location” where he forced her to perform oral sex on him.
The woman immediately filed a police report in Selma, telling authorities she feared he would shoot her if she did not cooperate.
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Joshua Davidson, a former deputy sheriff with the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office in Alabama, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a woman during a traffic stop. (Dallas County Sheriff’s Office)
“Law enforcement officers who sexually assault women and those in their care will and must be held accountable,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division wrote in a statement.
Clarke added that the DOJ will vigorously prosecute those who hunt vulnerable victims.
U.S. Attorney Sean P. Costello for the Southern District of Alabama echoed Clarke’s statements, adding that community members do not deserve to have their rights violated by someone sworn to protect them.
“Working with our federal, state and local partners, we will continue to bring law enforcement officers to justice who become criminals themselves,” Costello said.
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Davidson was reportedly suspended from his position with the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office after the sheriff confronted him about the allegations and discovered inconsistencies in his story, according to previous Alabama News Network reporting. Arrest warrants were issued against him in June 2020.
He was arrested a few weeks later at an apartment building in Hampton, New Hampshire, by US Marshals and the New Hampshire Joint Fugitive Task Force. Davidson is reportedly from out of state.
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The case was investigated by the FBI field office in Mobile.
“All law enforcement personnel who take an oath to protect and serve the American people must be held to a higher standard,” said Special Agent in Charge Paul Brown of the FBI Mobile Field Office. “FBI Mobile remains committed to holding those who do not meet this standard accountable for their actions, especially those who wear the badge.”
Davidson will be sentenced on August 25. The DOJ said he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.