Isleta Police Officer Leon Martin was arrested this past week for raping a woman he had just arrested for DUI while taking her to jail in his patrol car. The crime took place on November 22nd and was reported at the hospital, but it still took another week for the IPD to arrest Martin. Martin admitted to having sex with the woman, but denies raping her. A couple days later she tested positive for Chlamydia.
The victim says that she had sex with Martin because she was afraid that he would add extra charges or shoot her if she resisted. That power dynamic is why nobody in police custody can legally consent to having sex with an officer. Even if the victim in this case genuinely liked Officer Martin and asked for it, it is still rape because no detainee can legally consent to sex with an officer no matter how much they want it. We don't mean to imply that she wanted it at all, we are just trying to emphasize the fact that nobody in Officer Martin's position can defend an allegation of raping a detainee by claiming the sex was consensual.
The description of events sure doesn't sound consensual. It sounds like he asked her to come to the driver's seat, took off his belt, and offered to talk to the judge for the purpose of seeking a charge reduction if she had sex with him. She said that she went along with it because she felt she had no other choice. Officer Martin claims that she initiated the encounter and that he had a lapse in judgment. Even if this were merely a lapse in judgment the power dynamic means that the victim could not legally give consent to Martin, so by admitting to having sex with the victim Officer Martin admitted to raping her.
Martin is no longer employed by the IPD.