Prosecutors will take another look at a two-year-old case involving a St. Louis police officer who allegedly coerced a domestic violence victim into giving him oral sex, a spokeswoman for the office of Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner said yesterday.
Susan Ryan, a spokeswoman for Gardner, said the office would "take a fresh look" at the allegations against the officer.
The June 2015 incident gained new attention this week after filmmaker Matt Houchin released a short documentary featuring extensive interviews with victim Brittany Walker. Walker, who is Houchin's cousin, also told her story to the Riverfront Times, detailing her suicidal feelings after she acquiesced to the officer's demands.
Walker, then 25, was six months pregnant and had called the police for help after her estranged husband took the family car. But the officer who responded indicated that she needed to give him a blow job. Walker, who says she was terrified, complied — then puked the DNA evidence into a towel and called her mother. Her mother urged her to make a police report.
She did. But though Walker says she talked to several officers, and even some prosecutors, no charges were ever brought. The officer was allowed to retire, and the Circuit Attorney's Office declined to bring a case. Walker's name was never known — until this week.
Gardner, who took office in January, now plans to revisit the matter, Ryan says. She notes that prosecutors will have to look at whether the statute of limitations are a factor in any potential charges.
For more on Walker's story, see Houchin's film below. She was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma just months after giving birth to her fifth child in 2015, but says her cancer is now in remission and that she is doing well.
The Kansas City Star also took a look at Walker's story yesterday. “They clearly didn’t care enough even with all the evidence,” Walker told the paper. “We’re low-income in south St. Louis. Just another black girl in the city.”
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