A man was charged with sexual battery after a woman said he touched her when they were left in the back of a patrol car, Atlanta police said Tuesday.
Now, authorities are investigating if officers violated department policy when they placed the suspect and the woman in the same car, Officer Donald Hannah said.
The incident began Friday night when Officer S. Camille was in the process of taking the woman to the city jail, according to a police report obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Camille was interrupted when Officer Q. Green, who was working a side job at the nearby M Bar, requested help about 11:40 p.m. Green had found a suspect, identified as Vincent Jones, lighting and later crushing a crack pipe outside the Auburn Avenue bar, according to the report.
Camille went to the club to assist Green.
Jones was sitting on the ground at the business. He told officers he was cold.
“Jones was then placed in the back of Officer Camille’s patrol vehicle along with the female arrestee,” police said in the report.
Moments later, a fight broke out at the M Bar. As Camille and Jones tried to break it up, police said Jones sexually battered the woman.
Camille returned to the patrol car and took the woman out of the vehicle. The woman told Camille that Jones had “intentionally touched her on the buttocks,” according to the police report.
When she tried to pull away from him, “he got closer and made contact with her buttocks (a) second time,” police said in the report.
According to the Atlanta Police Department policy manual: "female prisoners may not be transported with a male prisoner unless they are accomplices or companions of the male prisoner."
In addition to sexual battery, Jones was charged with distribution of a drug-related object. The AJC does not name victims of sexual abuse, assault or battery.
Atlanta police “take the sexual battery allegations with the utmost seriousness,” spokeswoman Stephanie Brown said.
The Office of Professional Standards will conduct an internal investigation.
Brown didn’t go into specific reprimands officers could face, but said “all disciplinary actions are done on a case-by-case basis.”
The status of the officers has not changed since the alleged incident, Atlanta police Sgt. Warren Pickard said.
“As it relates to work status,” he said, “these officers continue to serve the citizens of Atlanta by working the streets and fighting crime.”
— Staff writer Raisa Habersham contributed to this article.
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