The 13 Women Who Accused A Cop Of Sexual Assault, In Their Own Words

Holtzclaw in September 2014.

Sue Ogrocki / AP

After four days of deliberation, a jury found former Oklahoma City Police Department Officer Daniel Holtzclaw guilty of multiple counts of rape and sexual assault on Thursday December 10. Holtzclaw, who has been on trial since November 2, was accused of sexually assaulting 13 black women in the community he patrolled.

All 13 women testified against Holtzclaw in the trial. But it wasn’t their first time telling their stories in court. Last November, during a two-day preliminary hearing, each alleged victim told her story in succession — publicly, for the first time ever, in a smaller courtroom than the one in which they delivered their trial testimony.

Before the November hearings, the women’s stories had been told only through prosecutors and detectives. This was the first time they explained what Daniel Holtzclaw allegedly did to them — how he exerted his authority, and how afterward they felt reporting him would be futile — in their own words. These testimonies have never been reported altogether, in full, until now.

The stories are consistent, from the questions Holtzclaw initially asked them, to the way he exposed himself through the fly of his police uniform, to the remote locations he took some of them to. GPS data from Holtzclaw’s car and various phone records presented in court verify many of the geographical and timeline-related details.

According to prosecutors, Holtzclaw targeted these women because they had records and lived in a high-crime neighborhood. He allegedly chose them because they didn’t want any trouble and because they feared the police — because they likely wouldn’t report their assaults to the police. He was the police.

According to the defense, these women are drug abusers and sex workers — some convicted felons with histories of lying to the police. Sometimes their testimonies are inconsistent, the defense said; they have “agendas,” they’re lying. Holtzclaw’s attorney built his defense on this approach: focusing on the character of the women and the reliability of their testimony.

This is their testimony.

S.H. December 2013. “I didn't think that no one would believe me.”

S.H. was sitting in a truck outside an apartment complex when she was approached by three Oklahoma City Police Department officers. S.H., 23, said she was high on PCP and having an even stronger reaction after some had spilled on her skin. The officers called an ambulance for her. At a nearby hospital, S.H. was given a drink to help her come down from the drugs. After showering, she changed into a hospital gown and was transferred to various rooms.

In the second hospital room, she allegedly found herself alone with Officer Daniel Holtzclaw, who was observing her while she lay down, one arm handcuffed to her bed. S.H. didn’t know yet if she was under arrest.

About an hour into Holtzclaw observing her like this, S.H. recalls that he began repeatedly pointing out that her chest was exposed.

I'm thinking to myself, is he trying to come on to me? Because I'm like — he knows my condition, so he know that I'm not trying to show it to him.

If somebody else was in that situation I wouldn't keep on telling them that, you know, because I wouldn't want them to feel uncomfortable.

Holtzclaw allegedly approached her to pull up her hospital gown, but then groped her chest.

I'm high, [but] I'm thinking, like, I know I'm not tripping. He just did that.

He just went back and sat down at the chair in front of the bed and was talking to me.

He was talking nicely to me, as if he was trying to be my friend or wanted me to believe in — believe him.

He was asking me, why do I choose the type of baby daddies that I have.

Holtzclaw allegedly groped her two more times. She said she thought about trying to run on a bathroom break, "but I was so out of it like I wasn't going to be able to make it.” Holtzclaw allegedly told her he would “fuck the shit” out of her.

I just really can't believe it because it's the police. And I thought stuff like that only just really happened on movies. I couldn't believe what was going on was really going on.

[He said] that if I cooperate that just give it a month and to trust him that my charges would be off.

When he tell me to trust him, I'm saying I never trusted a cop. I never trusted a cop. So he was like, well, I've been straight up front with you all this time.

S.H. testified that Holtzclaw then exposed himself and forced her into oral sodomy, telling her to not move too much so that her heart monitor wouldn’t go off. Afterward, she asked if she was going to jail — he responded that he had to take her to jail. She asked him to call her mom for her. After the call, which he made on his cell phone, Holtzclaw allegedly groped S.H.’s genitalia.

I just gasped.

Later, he prepared to take S.H. to county jail.

When I was talking to the nurse when she was taking my blood pressure and everything she asked me a whole lot of questions and she asked me was I sexually assaulted in the last 24 hours or whatever, and I told her no. He was standing behind her with my files, I guess … And after I said, no, he closed the book up.

He told me, he was like, 'I hid your tickets for you and I made your bond super fucking cheap.'

About two weeks later after I got out, I had a [Facebook] friend request from him and I accepted it.

I remembered his face and I remember seeing his badge with the last name.

Holtzclaw and S.H. messaged about her charges. He asked her to call him, giving her his phone number, and said he wanted to meet her again.

We was texting and he had told me that he was leaving the Outlet Mall and that he wanted to come see me and talk about the case. And he came and he parked in the driveway next door at the vacant house and waited for me to come outside.

My husband just stepped out. I was watching my kids and my little brothers and sisters and the whole time we was in the car we was talking and he was telling me like to — pressuring me to have sex with him.

I kept on telling him I couldn’t because the kids was in the house by theyself [sic] and he really wasn't too worried about that. He just was telling me like, ‘Could you just bend over real quick?’

That night, Holtzclaw allegedly exposed himself to her and asked for oral sex. She told him she “couldn't because I had to watch the kids that was in the house.”

I just had enough like of him just trying to make me have sex with him, and I was telling him like he don't even have a rubber or the condom and he really didn't care about that. He was asking me like, ‘You don't trust me?'

And I was just like, 'I can't do it,' and then I was just like, 'I got to go.'

S.H. told her mom and her twin about Holtzclaw. But she didn’t tell the police until they approached her about the ongoing investigation.

Because I didn't think that no one would believe me. I feel like all police will work together and I was scared.

Northeast 23rd Street in Oklahoma City, in a neighborhood where 13 women say they were sexually assaulted by Daniel Holtzclaw.

Eric Gay / AP

T.B. February through April 2014. “I wanted it to just go away.”

Around 11:30 p.m. one night, T.B. was sitting in a car with her two daughters and a friend, warming up the car before going to the store — waiting for midnight so that their food stamps would be ready — when two police cars rolled up. The officers told the women to get out of the car; T.B.’s friend went with one officer, and T.B. went with the other. The kids went inside the house. T.B. said she was put in the backseat of Holtzclaw’s patrol car, where she watched as her friend was allowed to go back into the house after a few minutes and the other officer drove off. She admitted to Holtzclaw she had outstanding tickets. She had been through this routine before, she said.

He spoke to me and told me I wasn't going to jail. [He asked did] I have any drugs under my shirt, and I said, no. And he asked could he see, so I lifted my shirt up and let him see.

I knew if I didn't I was going to jail.

I have been in the streets a very long time. And I know things — it naturally comes. First of all, if they going to search you a woman should be there to search you. Why would a man be asking what's under my shirt and could he see what's under my shirt?

He kept telling me, 'You know, you got these warrants. When are you going to take care of them?'

Holtzclaw allegedly asked T.B. if there were anything under her breasts, and then groped her. He then let T.B. go, and she went back into the house, where her friend and daughters asked what happened.

I told them that I had to show him my body to get out of the police car, so I wouldn't go to jail.

For real they were shocked. I'm like, 'Do you all believe me?' [They] said, 'Yes.'

How come I didn't call the police — I didn't. I wanted it to just go away.

The next month, T.B. said she had another encounter with Holtzclaw when she pulled up to her house and found his patrol car in her driveway. Holtzclaw was on the porch — he told T.B. to “come here,” and put her in the backseat of his car, running her name again. She asked him why he was at her house — he asked her where she had been and whether she’d taken care of her tickets yet. She told him he was scaring her daughter, who was on the front porch.

We did a little chatting. I can't recall each word, word for word.

We all know him by Spike.

Because when he knocked on my door and came in my house he always took the mousse and had his hair up and spikes up here at the front.

And that's how we identified him.

I don't even know what me and him was talking about. I was just ready to get it over with.

What I had to do to get out that police car to go in with my babies.

I knew what I had to do to get out. I didn't have money to pay my tickets and I knew [what] I had to do with him to get out the car.

She testified that she exposed her chest, but Holtzclaw didn’t touch her. He asked her if she had dope on her, and she said no. He asked if she had drugs in her pants. She pulled the waistband of her leggings away from her body.

When I was getting out of the car, I turned and I looked at where I was sitting at to see if there was $20 there. And I said, 'Why you got the $20 sitting there?' And he said, 'That's how I set my people up.' I left it at that and I went in the house with my babies.

When she got in the house, her boyfriend told her that earlier in the day, while he was sleeping, Holtzclaw had come into the house without permission and woken him up, telling him to come outside so Holtzclaw could run his name. T.B was upset, but she still didn’t want to call the police.

I didn't call them. I didn't think anyone would believe the allegations that I was making.

To be honest, I don't like the police and I try to stay away from them as far as I can.

A month later, she had yet another encounter with Holtzclaw. She was at home, on the phone with her mother when Holtzclaw showed up at her door. He wanted to come in. She told him she was on the phone — she had put the call on speakerphone. Holtzclaw said he wanted to search the house for drugs. She said no, and he got mad.

I told him when he go get his search warrant and stop coming by by hisself [sic] and bring other officers I'll freely open my door.

T.B.’s mother told T.B she should “pick up and leave.” She followed her mother’s advice, moving her family out of the neighborhood.

C.R. March 2014. “It was nobody there but just me and him, so to me, I just took it as my word against his.”

C.R. said she was walking alone one night when Holtzclaw stopped her. The officer asked if she had an ID, where she was coming from, and where she was going. He asked if she had anything on her, and she said no. He patted down her front pockets to check.

He just kept asking did I have anything on me, he asked me if I had been arrested, and I was asking him why was he stopping me. I mean, for what reason. I don't have any warrants. I had my ID.

He said he just wanted to talk.

It was just like nonchalant conversation. I don't remember word-for-word, but he was asking me [if] I [had] anything on me, more or less talking about the upper part of my body.

He was motioning his hand, like, ‘Do you have anything else on you?’ And I was like, ‘No.’ And he just kept [telling] me that he needed to be sure that I didn't have anything on me. So I just got to the point where I just opened my jacket and raised up my shirt and lifted my bra.

Because he kept asking me, talking about making sure that I didn't have anything on me, and I was ready to get away from him.

C.R. testified that she had come into contact with officers before that night, but that she had never had been made to raise her shirt like that. Afterward, Holtzclaw put her in the backseat of his patrol car, where she stayed in his for another 30–45 minutes for more “nonchalant talk.”

I don't remember exactly what it was [like], because in my mind was just thinking I wanted to get away, you know. And then after he let me out the car, I started walking back down 16th, and then a friend of mine saw me and he picked me up.

I spoke only in passing about it maybe once or twice, but I never went into details about it with anybody. I didn't — I just try not to think about it.

I didn't think anything would be done. I mean, it was nobody there but just me and him, so to me I just took it as my word against his, so I just blew it off — as best as I could just walked away from it.

Lincoln Boulevard in Oklahoma City, near the site where a woman says she was sexually assaulted by Holtzclaw.

Eric Gay / AP

F. April 2014. “He had asked me something about working girls and I told him I didn't know nothing about any working girls.”

F. testified that she was walking home one night when Holtzclaw stopped her. Earlier that day, she said, she had been drinking and smoking crack. The officer had stopped the 54-year-old woman before.

He asked for her ID, and she showed it to him. He had her empty her pockets — she had a crack pipe on her — and he handcuffed her, sitting her down on the curb.

He had asked me something about working girls and I told him I didn't know nothing about any working girls.

Holtzclaw also asked F. if she was a working girl. She said she wasn’t.

F. had outstanding city warrants, and Holtzclaw told her she needed to take care of them. He crushed her pipe and told her she was free to go. But when he took her cuffs off, Holtzclaw allegedly groped her chest over her clothes.

Once she was released, F. walked away from him, across a park.