Loyola Student Dispatch

Two Chicago Police officers charged with sexually assaulting a Rogers Park woman were ordered held on $500,000 bail Thursday, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Here’s the rest of the Sun-Times story:

Juan Vasquez and Paul Clavijo, both 38, picked up the 22-year-old female victim in Wrigleyville, then drove her to her Rogers Park home and raped her, prosecutors said.

Vasquez, wearing a blue polo shirt, and Clavijo, wearing a University of Illinois sweatshirt, spoke only to confirm their names and to say they wished to be represented by private attorneys to Judge Maria Kuriakos-Ciesil. Both attorneys later denied the allegations.

Assistant Cook County States Attorney Patty Sudendorf said the victim had a blood alcohol level of .38 when the attack happened.

The woman had been drinking at a friend’s house when Vasquez and Clavijo picked her up at Sheffield and Addison at 2 a.m. on March 30, Sudendorf said.

The woman attempted to enter the back seat, but Clavijo ushered her unto his lap in the front seat of the police car, then sexually assaulted her in the car while Vasquez went into a liquor store, Sudendorf added.

The victim “believed she could not say no to Clavijo’s sexual advances and had to do whatever the police officer asked her to do,” Sudendorf said.

At the victim’s home, she drank and played strip poker with the men, who removed their clothing and sexually assaulted her, prosecutors said. She ended up pounding on her walls and screaming that she’d been assaulted by the officers, prosecutors alleged.

Witnesses saw one of the cops fleeing naked and another putting his police uniform on in the victim’s room after neighbors dialled 911, Sudendorf added.

Police recovered part of Vasquez’s uniform and cell phone from the room, as well as a bottle of vodka the victim had been drinking, she said.

Swabs taken from the victims body indicated neither defendant can be excluded as the attacker she said.

After the hearing, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez said the victim’s incredibly high blood alcohol level meant she was “unable to give knowing consent to these particular acts.”

Clavijo is also accused of a similar crime on March 10, in which he and Vasquez allegedly picked up a 26-year-old woman at a bus stop near Clark and Sheffield, prosecutors said. They drove her home and asked to use her restroom, prosecutors said. Inside, when Vasquez went to the bathroom, Clavijo allegedly following the woman into her bedroom where he “pushed her onto the bed, pulled down her pants and performed a sex act on her,’’ prosecutors said in a written statement. The woman objected, and the officers left — but she did not immediately report the crime because she “worked in the area and was intimidated because the offenders were police officers and knew where she lived,’’ the statement said. Vasquez does not face charges in connection with the incident.

Speaking outside court Thursday, Clavijo’s attorney, Jed Stone, said that Clavijo is a highly-regarded officer with 10-years of experience.

“Paul Clavijo is not a rapist and should not be thought of as a rapist,” he said. “That would be a terrible and tragic mistake.”

He said that while he could not address the March 10th allegations, he called the March 30 incident an “indiscretion.’’

“I hope that none of us would be judged by the worst 15 minutes of our lives,” he said.

Clavijo “did not force himself on anyone. … Indiscretions, as our President Bill Clinton reminded us, are not crimes.”

Vasquez’s attorney Dan Herbert also maintained his client did not commit any crime, although he conceded the incident March 30 may cost Vasquez his job. In court, he denied Vasquez was present during the March 10th incident.

There has been “a rush to judgement and a case of a police officer being held to a different standard than any other profession,” he said. “This is not a criminal incident. Were there some bad decisions made? Absolutely.”

Both men were ordered by the judge to surrender their police weapons. Both men had been assigned to desk duties since the allegations surfaced.

Acting Police Supt. Terry Hilliard said Thursday the men would be placed back on administrative duties once they make bail, but that they still face internal police sanctions. He praised the courage of the victims, adding “this is a sad day.”

He also said in a statement that “the actions of these officers infuriate the thousands of honorable and proud officers that make up the Chicago Police Department, who have taken an oath to protect the citizens of Chicago. There is zero tolerance for anyone who disgraces the badge by breaking the law.’’