Two Chicago police officers accused of playing strip poker with a 22-year-old Rogers Park woman before sexually assaulting her were charged late Wednesday and stripped of their police powers.
According to a police report, the woman was crying while walking on Broadway near Granville Avenue late on March 29 after having a drunken argument with a man, the Chicago Tribune reported at the time.
Two police officers allegedly approached the woman and asked her if she wanted a ride home. The officers were apparently on duty, and from the Town Hall Police District, two districts south of where they met the woman in question.
The woman allegedly had sex with one of the officers in the police car, during which time she did not say "no," according to the Chicago Sun-Times. She then brought them both back to her apartment, where the three reportedly played a game of strip poker. This culminated in her allegedly having sex with one of the officers in her bed, where she allegedly pounded on the wall to get a neighbor's attention. She later ran screaming from the apartment, according to the Tribune, prompting neighbors to call police.
The woman told police at the time that she was "intimidated by the officers and was afraid to say no to sex."
Juan Vasquez and Paul Clavijo, both 38, have been charges with criminal sexual assault and official misconduct in the incident and were stripped of their powers when the investigation began, the Sun-Times reports.
Clavijo has also been charged with criminal sexual assault and official misconduct for a March 10 incident involving someone else.
"The alleged criminal actions of these officers infuriate the thousands of honorable, proud officers that make up the Chicago Police Department, who have taken an oath to protect the citizens of Chicago," Chicago Police Department officials said in a press release. "The Department, and the law enforcement community, will not tolerate anyone who disgraces the badge by violating the law and the public's trust."
Since the case was made public, nearly a half-dozen women have come forward claiming the same officers sexually assaulted them.
Vasquez and Clavijo are due in court later Thursday, and the case remains under investigation.