Cartagena police commander, Colonel Fernando Murillo, confirmed that a lieutenant with 16 years experience and three officers with more than two years experience were dismissed from the force after a Barranquilla woman filed a complaint that she had been sexually abused by the authorities on May 12, 2011.
“There were four former police officers involved in a crime, that is the theft of merchandise and it looks like one of them abused one of the victims. Utilizing the function of the police; they were active at that moment, they carried out a criminal act,” said General Murillo who went on to explain that the investigation carried out by police aided by the Prosecutor General and forensic medicine, found that these events did occur and “for that reason they [the officers] were dismissed.”
The alleged incident occurred after the four police officers stopped a vehicle with four passengers, one of which –the female from Barranquilla– did not have a receipt for merchandise she was carrying. They detained her and brought her to the local police station (CAI). One of the officers allegedly took the female from the station and sexually abused her.
After the incident the female asked for a tissue to clean herself off. She kept the tissue which later tested positive for the semen of one of the officers.
The four officers were arraigned in front of a Cartagena judge for charges of theft, kidnapping and sexual abuse and remain detained in the Ternera prison until their court date.