ST. LOUIS — Two St. Louis police officers have been charged with sexual assaults — but the I-Team has learned it’s not the first time at least one of them has been accused of the crime.
Officers Lafeal Lawshea and Torey Phelps were charged March 18 for offenses dating to 2009.
But two women filed complaints with Internal Affairs against Lawshea accusing him of sexually assaulting them in 2012 and 2014, according to documents obtained by 5 On Your Side.
In 2012, a woman told internal affairs officers Lawshea sexually assaulted her while she was unconscious in her apartment and left without explaining his actions.
Then, in 2014, another woman reported Lawshea to internal affairs, accusing him of intimate partner violence. The internal affairs officer wrote, “Both (the victim) and Lawshea had visible injuries.”
Retired St. Louis Sgt. Heather Taylor is friends with some of the alleged victims and called the department’s handling of the internal investigations in 2012 and 2014 “horrible.”
“They failed some of these victims with the original investigation, so here we are,” she said. “These things could have been handled in 2012 when these things were initially coming out.
“Some of the officers told other officers and they failed to act. That's really horrible internally and externally because there were more victims in between and that could have been prevented.”
It’s unclear whether department leaders disciplined Lawshea for the 2012 and 2014 complaints. A department spokesman declined to comment, saying the previous charges against Lawshea are personnel matters.
But Hayden acknowledged the victims in a statement he issued regarding his concerns about some bills pending in the legislature.
“The situation should recognize the courage of several victims," he wrote.
Lawshea was never criminally charged for the 2012 and 2014 alleged assaults.
And he has been allowed to work with crime victims, including women — by phone at least — up until the day he was charged.
He has been held without bail since then.
On Friday, a judge denied his attorney’s second attempt to set a bond.
Attorney Travis Noble said prosecutors read a victim impact statement, in which the victim told the court Lawshea should be held in jail and his family should suffer just as hers has.
“That’s not the proper use of bond,” Noble said, adding he plans to ask to set a bond for his client again.
Noble also said some of the alleged victims had been in relationships with his clients.
“And all of a sudden, 10 years later, they’re making these allegations?” Noble asked. “That’s suspect, and we’re going to absolutely challenge them.”
Noble called his client an exemplary officer who has won awards.
“My client has assured me, and everyone that I’ve talked to who knows him, assures me that he’s innocent of these charges,” Noble said.
He added that some of the victims are police officers.
“I find it very unusual that women who are in position of authority and power, who know better than anyone on how to report allegations of sexual assault, why they haven't come forward prior to now?” Noble said. “I look forward to trying to find out.”
Taylor said some of the victims did report the allegations and watched as Lawshea and Phelps kept their jobs. Now that they’ve been charged, Taylor said she believes more victims will come forward.
“It was very intimidating for a lot of the victims that they were still officers,” Taylor said.
Taylor added the same Internal Affairs commander, Lt. William Brown, was overseeing the division when the 2012 and 2014 complaints were made, but didn’t result in any criminal charges.
She called it a “conflict of interest,” because Brown didn’t believe the women who made the complaints in 2012 and 2014, so she’s wondering how he can be trusted to see the other cases through objectively.
Phelps, meanwhile, has no previous allegations of sexual assault in the documents police released to the I-Team. He, too, was initially held without bond, but a judge allowed him to post a $10,000 bail during a bond reduction hearing.