On June 17th 2014, Officer Daniel Hortzclaw pulled over a 57-year old daycare worker and molested her during what the driver assumed to be a routine traffic stop.

The Oklahoma City law enforcer then ordered the driver to perform intimate sexual acts on him, while he held his gun in full view of the victim.

The next day, the victim reported the crime to local police, and Officer Hortzclaw was arrested and the sex crimes division were soon able to connect Hortzclaw to a series of sexual attacks in the city across seven months in 2013 and 2014 while the officer worked the 4pm to 2am shift.

Hortzclaw was subsequently fired from the force in January of this year, and was accused of 36 charges including rape, sexual battery, indecent exposure and burglary. Thirteen separate victims reported how Hortzclaw had consistently isolated and assaulted them, before threatening them into remaining silent about the attacks.

Yesterday, after forty-five hours of deliberation by the jury, the 29-year-old was found guilty of eighteen of the thirty-six charges, with four separate charges of first-degree rape. The victims included a 17-year-old who was raped by the officer on her mother's front porch while he threatened her with an outstanding warrant, while another reported she was assaulted while on drugs and handcuffed to a hospital bed.

The Oklahoma Police Department responded directly to the court's decision:

.@okcpd respond to the #HoltzclawVerdict @kfor pic.twitter.com/ZQVdfsv8nO

— Adam Snider (@AdamSniderKFOR) December 11, 2015

 

Hortzclaw will be back in court for the official sentencing on January 21st 2016.