Former Hopi Ranger convicted of sexual assault
WINDOW ROCK
A former Hopi Ranger was convicted by an Arizona federal jury.
Mackenzie Davis, 25, was indicted in January and convicted for one count of deprivation of rights under color of law, one count of abusive sexual contact, and one count of destruction of evidence on Thursday.
According to the indictment, Davis arrested a woman for driving under the influence on or about Nov. 15, 2016. At the time, he was an officer for the Hopi Ranger Enforcement Services.
Davis handcuffed the victim and placed her in the backseat of his patrol vehicle and began transporting her to the Navajo County Detention Center in Holbrook, Arizona.
The indictment stated Davis pulled off the highway and “touched” the victim’s breast and “put his mouth” on her “bare breast,” and then took a photograph with his cellular phone, “all the while she was handcuffed in the backseat of his patrol car.”
“Any law enforcement officer who uses his official authority to target and sexually assault a person in his custody will be held accountable,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney General Eric Dreiband. “The Department of Justice commends the victim who came forward to report this reprehensible conduct, so that this officer’s crimes could see the light of day.”
It was not Davis’s first time he was accused of sexual assault. According to a statement from the USDOJ, another witness testified that he engaged in similar conduct with her five years prior, when he was not a law enforcement officer.
“A sexual assault is doubly devastating to the victim when perpetrated by a law-enforcement officer whose only duty was to protect her from such harm,” said Michael Bailey, U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona.
Davis’ sentencing is set for Feb. 24, 2020. He faces up to 23 years in federal prison.
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