By Ryan Dezember
The Mobile Register
ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — Baldwin County authorities continue to investigate a woman’s claims that she was raped by a trio of Orange Beach policemen, though neither District Attorney Judy Newcomb nor Sheriff’s Department spokesman Maj. Anthony Lowery would discuss details Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Orange Beach Police Chief Billy Wilkins said that he is “confident” that none of the six officers on duty that night had any contact with the woman.
The woman has said that she was pulled over by police along Alabama 182 on Perdido Key about 10:30 p.m. May 10, led off the beach highway by two officers and raped behind sand dunes while a third patrolman stood watch.
Lowery has said that the woman was not an Orange Beach resident.
Wilkins said that because the investigation has been handed over to the Sheriff’s Department and the District Attorney’s office, “we’re very limited on what investigating we could do internally.”
Besides not having access to the complainant, Wilkins said he is not privy to many details of the case - essentially anything beyond the date and general time of the alleged rape, including the identity of the officers supposedly involved.
Wilkins said he reviewed video from in-dash cameras as well as dispatch records to see if the department had interacted with the woman.
After determining the department had no official contact with the woman, he ordered the entire six-member shift that worked late May 10 to take lie detector tests. Each of the officers passed, Wilkins said.
“It would be very difficult for three people to deceive an experienced polygraph operator,” Wilkins said. “I just couldn’t run the risk of having someone work the streets that committed a crime like that had there been one.”
Because he doesn’t know exactly whom the allegations have been leveled against beyond an entire shift - one-fourth of the department’s patrol officers - no one has been suspended or placed on leave, Wilkins said.
Wilkins said his department has cooperated with county investigators by handing over video records from patrol cruisers, as well as dispatch records. The department has also made personnel available for interviews and had officers submit DNA samples.
“I’m not victim bashing. I’m not trying to say something didn’t happen, " Wilkins said. “I just feel confident those six officers had no contact with that person.”
Lowery said last week when the allegations were first made public that investigators had been hampered in their work because the complainant was not fully cooperating with them. But on Wednesday he indicated that is no longer the case.
“We’ve been able to move forward with the investigation,” he said. “We hope to bring it to a resolution soon.”
Copyright 2008 The Mobile Register