The Associated Press
NEW YORK — A city police officer was convicted of molesting women while responding to routine noise complaints and traffic violations.
Fernand Clerge was being held without bail after the jury rendered the verdict Monday in Brooklyn state Supreme Court, convicting him of sexual abuse and official misconduct.
Clerge, 40, was acquitted of the most serious charge, attempting to commit a criminal sexual act. He is already suspended from duty and could face a sentence of up to seven years in prison.
Clerge and his partner, Officer Charles McGeean, made women submit to searches that turned into unwanted groping, prosecutors said. McGeean, 39, pleaded guilty in March to sexual abuse and official misconduct. He is serving a sentence of three years’ probation.
Two female victims were called by prosecutors to testify during the weeklong trial. One, a 37-year-old woman, said that the officers assaulted her after a traffic stop. She said Clerge tried to force her to perform oral sex, before restraining her and masturbating.
A defense lawyer, Paul P. Martin, challenged the accounts by the women, accusing them of lying about the attacks to establish the basis for lawsuits. He said one incident was consensual, the other fiction.
“You cannot convict this man,” Martin told the jury, “based upon the testimony you heard on the witness stand.”