SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) – A former Sacramento police officer convicted of raping a 75-year-old stroke victim in her senior living apartment has been sentenced to life in prison, court records show.
Prosecutors said Gary Dale Baker, 52, entered the woman’s apartment at least three times from 2010 to 2012, raping her twice as she suffered from a stroke-related inability to speak.
He was convicted in July of nine charges relating to the case, including rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual battery and burglary.
The woman, now 77, was recovering from a stroke in a senior living complex in South Sacramento when the attacks began, prosecutors said.
She struggled to communicate to her family what had happened, and initially, even though DNA evidence confirmed the rape, investigators were not able to link it to any known suspects, prosecutors said.
But in late 2012, after Baker attempted a third assault, a Sacramento police detective suggested that the woman’s family install a motion-activated camera.
When Baker came back again, police officers reviewing the footage immediately recognized him as Baker, then an active officer on the Sacramento police force.
He was arrested and fired from the department.
“You tarnished the badge for police officers everywhere,” Sacramento Superior Court judge Ernest Sawtelle said as he sentenced Baker, the Sacramento Bee newspaper reported on Wednesday. “For your crimes, you will be sentenced to life in prison.”
Sawtelle called Baker’s crimes “unspeakable,” the newspaper said.
Sacramento County jail records show that Baker remained in custody Wednesday, with no listed release date. A request by his attorneys for a new trial was denied on Tuesday, records show.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Bernard Orr)
http://news.yahoo.com/ex-california-cop-sentenced-life-raping-stroke-victim-172706547.html
This story seems so f$%cking insane wonder if it was a setup,if true would say I have a solution for about .20 cents,even a bit cheaper if I reload it!I mean really,a older person recovering from a debilitating health incident!?I know the world is insane at times but this one for some reason is bothering me more then much of the sad things I read/hear,this is just freaking nuts!To those that still drink beer,please have one for me and calm my temper,this one is going to bother me for awhile,and feel saddened there is nothing I can do to change it.
“You tarnished the badge for police officers everywhere,”
THERE’S an oxymoron for you.
“For your crimes, you will be sentenced to life in prison.”
For the crime of getting caught, maybe.
Rape of anyone is bad enough. Rape of an elderly victim of stroke is even more heinous. Why should the taxpayer have to pay to keep this scum alive? Death should be his just reward, and no waiting for years on death row. I would give him death by sundown.