A former Alabama deputy sheriff has been sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman in his custody.
On 30 January 2020, while on duty as a Dallas county deputy sheriff, 33-year-old Joshua Davidson placed a woman in custody following a traffic stop. He drove her down a dark road to a desolate location where he forced her to perform oral sex on him against her will, the justice department said in a statement.
The victim, who reported the assault immediately, was afraid that Davidson would shoot her if she did not cooperate, the statement added.
In May, Davidson pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the woman. WSFA reports that Davidson had only been employed by the sheriff’s office for three months before the assault and that the US Marshals Service arrested him in July 2020 in New Hampshire before extraditing him to Alabama.
Following the arrest, authorities said Davidson faced charges of kidnapping, human trafficking and sodomy, WSFA reports. Records reviewed by the news station showed that Davidson had also worked for the Greenville police department and the sheriff’s offices in Butler and Crenshaw counties.
“Today’s sentence sends a clear message that officers who abuse their positions of power to sexually assault women in their custody will face significant prison time for their unlawful actions,” the assistant attorney general of the justice department’s civil rights division, Kristen Clarke, said in a statement on Friday following the sentencing.
“The justice department will not tolerate sexual misconduct committed by law enforcement officers who were sworn to serve and protect their communities,” she added.
The US attorney for the southern district of Alabama, Sean Costello, echoed similar sentiments in the DOJ’s statement: “The citizens of Dallas county rightfully rely on their law enforcement officers to serve and protect them, not assault and abuse them. Some criminals wear a badge, and we will continue to hold accountable those who violate the law and erode the trust of our community.”
The FBI mobile field office investigated the case and the assistant US attorney for the southern district of Alabama, Andrew Arrington, and the trial attorneys Maura White and MarLa Duncan of the civil rights division’s criminal section prosecuted the case, the justice department said.
