'Officer Blow Job'
author: from the Eugene Weekly
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Cops think they know that they can get away with anything.
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'Officer Blow Job'
EPD didn't respond to complaints about Magaņa.
BY ALAN PITTMAN
Roger Magaņa, accused of raping or sexually abusing a dozen women while a Eugene Police Department officer, was known on the street as "Officer Blow Job," a woman victim alleged last week in court. Other victims claim EPD did not respond to their complaints about Magaņa's behavior.
Roger Magaņa
One alleged victim, a 39-year-old recovered heroin addict and mother, appeared to be the most frequent target of Magaņa. She cried as she alleged how Magaņa molested her and forced her to give oral sex numerous times by threatening to arrest her, kill her or have her child taken away.
At one point, the woman pleaded with Magaņa to stop forcing sex from her after he had touched her breasts and put his finger in her vagina, she alleged. Magaņa had taken her in his patrol car to an area near Chambers Street where school buses are parked.
"I was upset," she said. "I just said I couldn't take it anymore." Magaņa responded angrily, she said, "he acted like he was just doing me favors or something."
The woman alleged Magaņa put his police gun against her chest and told her, "If you ever tell anyone, I'm going to fucking kill you."
Later, Magaņa threatened to tell drug dealers she was ratting on them to police, the woman alleged. On the street such an action "can be life threatening," she said.
The first time Magaņa picked her up off the street in his patrol car, he drove her to a remote area of the Eugene Airport and threatened to jail her for possession unless she gave him oral sex, she alleged. "I was crying and panicked and shocked."
The next time he picked her up, Magaņa repeated the threat and drove to a remote area near the Whiteaker railroad tracks. She says she feared the "absolutely horrendous and physically painful" drug withdrawal she would have in jail and felt she had no choice but to perform oral sex.
Another time Magaņa threatened arrest again and took the woman to a "disgusting" restroom in Monroe Park where junkies shot up and forced her to get on her knees and again perform oral sex, she alleged. Afterwards, "he walked out of the bathroom and I vomited."
The demands for oral sex on threat of arrest happened over and over again, the woman alleged. "Every time it got worse and worse. There was more aggression and more threats," she said. After she was excused for the day, the woman left the courtroom and sobbed in the hallway.
On cross examination the next day, defense attorney Russell Barnett asked if she was motivated by her civil lawsuit against the city.
"I don't think there's any amount of money that could ever make it up," she said of what happened to her.
Another woman, a 28-year-old former heroin user and prostitute, alleged Magaņa directed his trainee officer Juan Lara to drug search her "in a very demeaning way."
At Magaņa's direction Lara touched her vaginal area and breasts and pulled her pants down on a busy street corner at rush hour, the woman alleged. The woman said she asked for a female officer to conduct the search, but Magaņa threatened to jail her. The officers found no drugs and let her go, she said. Officer Lara was convicted earlier this year of sex abuse and sentenced to five years in prison.
Later, the same woman alleged Magaņa picked her up in his patrol car in the Whiteaker neighborhood and said he would arrest her unless she performed oral sex. Magaņa told her that no one would believe her if she complained, saying, "you're a prostitute and a heroin addict and I'm a police officer," the woman alleged.
Magaņa pulled over near a vacant lot and "took a handful of my hair and forced my head into his lap," the woman alleged. She said, crying, that she fought back yelling, pleading and elbowing and finally struggled free and out the car door.
Magaņa hopped the curb in his patrol car after her and nearly hit her, the woman alleged. She said she managed to escape into the night. "I was running for my life. I was scratched up and bleeding from blackberry bushes, nails from fences."
When Magaņa later saw her on the street, the woman alleges he threatened, "if you tell anyone what happened, I will make your life a living hell," she said. "I was scared for my life, so I moved to Springfield."
On cross examination the woman denied she was motivated by a $2.25 million lawsuit she has filed against the city. But she said, "I think Magaņa needs to pay for what he did to me and others."
Another alleged victim, a 43-year-old woman, said Magaņa responded to a domestic dispute at her house four years ago. The woman alleged Magaņa threatened her with arrest and made her perform oral sex on her knees in the hallway. "I was very intimidated," she said. "I felt like I had no choice."
Another woman, 26, alleged Magaņa followed her home and tried to hit on her. She said Magaņa held her hand tight and asked for a kiss on the cheek outside her home. Feeling like she had to kiss him, the woman said she tried to kiss his cheek, but "he turned his face and slopped his mouth on mine," she alleged. She said Magaņa left after she told him her uncle worked for the county Sheriff's Department.
A 31-year-old woman alleged Magaņa also forced oral sex from her numerous times by threatening to send her to jail or take her daughter away. She said she grew fearful that the officer would kill her and at one point she spat his semen out on a pair of sweatpants to keep as evidence. Prosecutor Bob Lane alleged the semen DNA matches
Magaņa.
The woman's 10-year-old daughter testified that she saw "officer Roger" French kissing her mother while Magaņa was in "his officer suit."
EPD FAILED TO STOP MAGAņA
The trial, expected to last until mid July, continues to raise questions about how Magaņa was allegedly able to sexually abuse and rape so many women without the EPD stopping him.
The 39-year-old woman testified that she told Eugene Police Officer Jerry Webber what Magaņa was doing, but the department did nothing. "I hollered for help to the police department and he didn't do a damn thing for me," the woman alleged angrily.
The lack of action by the EPD left her feeling "hopeless and helpless," the woman said. "I didn't understand how he [Magaņa] could do this and not get caught when he's supposed to be someone you could trust."
The only apparent result of her complaint was more abuse from Magaņa, the woman alleged. Magaņa came to her "infuriated" that she had complained, demanded more oral sex, ripped off her pants, "touched my genitals with his gun," and said, "If you tell anyone anything about me, I'll blow you up from the inside out," she alleged.
Magaņa later threatened her until she would restore his reputation by writing a glowing commendation letter, she alleged. "He was going to hurt me, kill me, hurt my daughter, take my daughter away."
Officer Webber testified that he asked Officer Magaņa about the woman's allegations, but Magaņa denied it. Webber said Magaņa told him the woman had made the same allegations about him.
Webber said he asked the woman if she had accused him of abuse while the officer drove her to jail. Webber said the woman denied she had and also recanted her allegations against Magaņa.
Another woman screamed out to municipal court Judge Wayne Allen that Magaņa had made her perform oral sex, Allen testified. But Allen and his clerk did not report or pursue the incident.
A female police officer, Dallas Hall, testified that Magaņa once called on her to arrest a naked "bitch" in a bathtub at a hotel. She thought the incident "very strange" and "unprofessional" but she did not report Magaņa to her superiors. The woman in the bathtub was one of Magaņa's most frequent alleged victims.
The EPD might have saved a dozen women from sex abuse had it acted on a sexual harassment complaint against Magaņa almost a decade ago. An Hispanic woman testified that when she was 17 and a police cadet, Magaņa hit on her and pressed his chest against her breasts and pushed his crotch against her against her will. The woman said she complained about Magaņa to Officer Jennifer Bills.
Officer Bills testified that she told Magaņa that his sexual advances on to the woman were inappropriate because she was a minor and he was married. Bills said Magaņa continued to flirt with the cadet, but she said she did not file a written report on the problem nor did she tell superiors. Bills is now in charge of investigating officer misconduct for the EPD.
The cadet alleged Magaņa retaliated after her complaint by having another cadet spray foam on her. She said she dropped out of the cadet program and gave up her dream of becoming a police officer. "To become a police officer it seemed like I had to deal with a lot, like officers like Roger Magaņa."
The 28-year-old victim who struggled away rather than give Magaņa oral sex said she asked the officer how a cop could expect to get away with forcing sex. She said Magaņa replied, "Oh, you would be amazed at what I can do, and I can get away with."
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