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Maleatra Montanez says former Syracuse, New York police officer Chester Thompson forced her to have sex with him after she called for help on Valentine’s Day 2015.

Officer Chester Thompson admitted to having consensual sex with Montanez and was never prosecuted for rape. The 40-year-old reported the assault on the same day and took a rape kit.

Thompson was eventually charged and convicted of official misconduct, a misdemeanor, and sentenced to three years probation. The officer was suspended from the police department shortly before his March 2015 arrest.

Montanez has now filed a $7 million lawsuit against Thompson, the city of Syracuse, police Chief Frank Fowler, and former internal affairs Captain Thomas Galvin, alleging that Thompson had a known history of sexual malfeasance that should have been investigated sooner.

The Daily News’ Shaun King spoke with Roland Martin about the disturbing Montanez rape case, which draws parallels to the Daniel Holtzclaw case.

King explained the former Syracuse cop was not prosecuted for rape because of a strange stipulation in the law that is just for police in the state. According to King, this provision says if a police officer forces himself upon a woman and if the woman does not fight back or scream, the assault is considered “misconduct and not rape.”  

“In essence she didn’t fight back enough, which is crazy,” King said. “Just like in the Daniel Holtzclaw case, you have 13 different women who felt just like this woman: ‘What am I supposed to do right now, who am I supposed to call, who’s going to believe me?'”

“If any of us were in that position, we would all be torn as to exactly what we were going to do to be able to get out of that room alive.”

Watch Roland Martin, Shaun King, and the NewsOne Now panel discuss the Maleatra Montanez police rape case in the video clip above.

TV One’s NewsOne Now has moved to 7 A.M. ET, be sure to watch “NewsOne Now” with Roland Martin, in its new time slot on TV One.

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SEE ALSO:

Daniel Holtzclaw, Ex-Cop Convicted Of Rape, Disappears From Prison Database