Woman’s Own – 02 September 2019

‘Messed

withthe

wronggirl’

Jasminespokeout

aboutherordeal

‘Hehanded

mesome

money...’

HEADLINES

Behind the

Anna

Chambers

The park where

Anna was

allegedly assaulted

‘They took advantage of me’
Jasmine Abuslin, now 21, was just 12 when
she started as a sex worker along the
International Boulevard of Fruitvale in
Oakland, and it was two years
later that she says she started
sleeping with police officers,
sometimes for money.
Despite the fact it’s illegal
in Oakland for an officer to
have sex with someone under
arrest and the age of consent is 18, she
claims she was involved with more than^

a dozen officers. It was only when one of

those officers, Brendan O’Brien, committed

suicide and left a note detailing their^

relationship that the full story

emerged. ‘A brother of a friend

molested me and, afterwards,

he handed me some money,’

says Jasmine. ‘I thought, “If

I let these men do this to me,

I’ll get something out of it.”’

Four convictions

She said that after one police officer had

sex with her, a stream of others followed

• even when they were on duty. ‘They’d
  say they’d heard I was good at this or
  would do this. Instead of helping me or
  giving me resources for help, they took
  advantage of me.’
  Four officers were convicted of sexual
  unprofessional misconduct and 12 in total
  were disciplined. Jasmine also received
  a $989,000 (around £800,000) settlement
  from Oakland City.^

‘I am not keeping my

mouth shut’

Two police officers were accused

of sexually assaulting Anna

Chambers in September 2017.

Anna, now 20, from

New York, said Eddie

Martins and Richard

Hall had approached

her as she sat with

friends in a remote

field. When they took

her away in an unmarked car and

asked her friends not to follow,

she claims they began the attack.

‘They acted like they’d done this

plenty of times before,’ she says.

Around 18 months after the

attack, rape charges

against Hall and Martins were

thrown out by the court – despite

the fact both their DNA was found

in Anna’s body. They

both claimed the sex

was consensual and

cited ‘inconsistencies’

in Anna’s statement,

including her outfit

and the route they

took when they drove her.

New bill passed

The court also used Anna’s

promiscuous social-media photos

to challenge her. She said, ‘I am

not keeping my mouth shut. They

messed with the wrong girl.’

In light of Anna’s case,

in 2018, New York State

passed a bill making

it illegal for police

officers to have

sex with someone

in their custody.

As the bill was

passed after the

alleged assault

on Anna, it will not

impact the outcome

of her case.

●^ Abused by the Police? is on

BBC Three Online, BBC iPlayer and

BBC One at 10.35pm on 4 September

IT HAPPENS IN

THE UK, TOO

This terrifying issue is not

exclusive to America. In fact,

nearly 1,500 accusations of sexual

misconduct were made against

police officers in England and

Wales between 2012 and 2017.

A Freedom of Information Request

found that 371 complaints were

upheld and 197 officers were

either sacked or they resigned.

The stories include one of an

officer in Durham who tried to

develop intimate relationships

with vulnerable women and an

officer in Devon and Cornwall who

attended a victim’s address and

got in the shower with her naked.