City Bill Would Ban Cops From Having Sex With People They Arrest

NEW YORK CITY — Two NYPD cops accused of raping a teenage girl in Coney Island reportedly claim she consented to the sex. But a city councilman who represents the area wants to make it clear that that's impossible.

Councilman Mark Treyger (D-Coney Island) plans to introduce a bill making it illegal for cops to engage in sexual conduct in the course of their job, he announced Tuesday. A city law would close a loophole in state criminal law's protections for prison inmates and parolees, Treyger said.

The bill comes as prosecutors investigate two on-duty detectives accused of handcuffing and raping an 18-year-old woman in a Coney Island parking lot while on duty Sept. 15. Though their DNA was found on the woman, Detectives Edward Martins and Richard Hall apparently claimed the sex was consensual and had their lawyers try to discredit her in a letter to the Brooklyn district attorney's office, according to reports in the New York Post.

"We do not need a change in laws, however, to understand that what occurred was deeply, morally wrong," Treyger wrote in an online statement Tuesday. "Regardless of legal outcomes, we know that it is wrong for two police officers to use their positions of authority to engage in sexual activity with a teenager."

Treyger has requested that council staffers draft a bill, but one hasn't been written or introduced yet, his office said.

Brooklyn prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into the alleged rape, and the woman plans to sue the NYPD for $50 million. The detectives have been stripped of their guns but haven't been arrested, police officials have said.

State law already says people in prison can't legally consent to sex with corrections officers who police them because of the power dynamics between them. Neither can parolees consent to sex with parole officers. But there are no protections for people who have only been arrested or detained, Treyger said. He called on state lawmakers to close the loophole with legislation in Albany.

Treyger said it's "inexcusable" that the cops' lawyers tried to discredit the alleged victim, who goes by the name "Anna Chambers" on social media. Their letter to the DA's office cited her online posts, saying she's acting in a way "unprecedented for a depressed victim of a vicious rape."

"Everyone deserves to be treated with professionalism in the course of their interactions with the police; the abuse of power exercised by these two detectives rattles the foundations of positive police-community relations that the law enforcement community has been working to build," Treyger wrote.

In a statement, a spokesman for the Brooklyn DA's office said the letter's "characterization of how a rape victim should behave is inaccurate, inappropriate and demeaning."

Mayor Bill de Blasio disputed the idea that people in police custody could consent to sex with cops.

"I don't see how that's possible, honestly," de Blasio said Tuesday at an unrelated news conference. "Any instance like this needs a full investigation so I'm not going to comment on the specific situation under investigation. But as a broad notion I find it very troubling."

(Lead image: City Councilman Mark Treyger (D-Coney Island). Photo from New York City Council)