A police officer took a teen for a rape kit. Then he assaulted her, too.
Source: Washington Post
ABUSED BY THE BADGE
A police officer took a teen for a rape kit.
Then he assaulted her, too.
Hundreds of law enforcement officers have been accused of sexually abusing children over the past two decades, a Post investigation found
Story by Jessica Contrera, Jenn Abelson and John D. Harden
Photos by Carolyn Van Houten
March 14, 2024 at 8:00 a.m.
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The 14-year-old did not want to go to the emergency room. Her mother had begged her. Her therapist had gently prodded. And now there was a police officer in her living room. ... “You really should think about it,” he said. ... He introduced himself as Officer Rodney Vicknair. His New Orleans Police Department cruiser was waiting outside, ready to take her to the hospital for a rape kit. Early that morning, the girl said, a 17-year-old friend had forced himself on her.
Under the police department’s rules, a case like this was supposed to be handled from the start by a detective trained in sex crimes or child abuse. But on this afternoon in May of 2020, it was Vicknair, a patrol officer with a troubled past, who knocked on the girl’s door.
He tried to coax her into changing her mind. “If I’m a young man that has done something wrong to a young lady and she doesn’t follow up and press the issue,” Vicknair said as his body camera recorded the conversation, “then I’m gonna go out and do it to another young lady.” ... “And it’s gonna be worse, maybe, the next time,” Vicknair said, “because I’m gonna think in my head, ‘Oh, I got the power. I can go further this time.’ ” ... The girl didn’t want that. She just wanted this to be over. ... She didn’t know it was only the beginning. Four months later, police would arrest a man for sexually assaulting the girl. But it wouldn’t be her teenage friend. It would be Officer Rodney Vicknair.
The day the 14-year-old met 53-year-old Vicknair was the day the officer began a months-long grooming process, prosecutors would allege. Within hours of meeting the girl, Vicknair wrapped his arm around her while they took a selfie. He let her play with his police baton. He joked with her about “whipping your behind.” He showed her multiple photos of a young woman dressed only in lingerie.
{snip}
About this story
Reporting by Jessica Contrera and Jenn Abelson. Data reporting and analysis by John D. Harden. Nate Jones, Hayden Godfrey, Riley Ceder, Razzan Nakhlawi and Alice Crites also contributed to this report.
Photos by Carolyn Van Houten. Photo editing by Robert Miller. Video editing by Joy Sung. Design and development by Tucker Harris. Additional design by Laura Padilla Castellanos. Design editing by Christian Font. Additional images by iStock.
Lynda Robinson was the lead editor. Additional editing by David S. Fallis, Anu Narayanswamy, Courtney Kan, Tara McCarty, Christopher Rickett, Ashleigh Wilson, Jessica Koscielniak, Jay Wang, Angela Hill and John Sullivan.
Read more about how this series was reported, our methodology and our project team here.
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Jessica Contrera
Jessica Contrera is an enterprise reporter who writes about lives being shaped by major events and issues in the news. @mjcontrera https://twitter.com/mjcontrera
Jenn Abelson
Jenn Abelson is a reporter for The Washington Post's investigative team and co-host of Broken Doors.
John D. Harden
John D. Harden is a metro data reporter for The Washington Post. He joined The Post after four years working for the Houston Chronicle as a data and breaking news reporter. @jdharden https://twitter.com/jdharden
Carolyn Van Houten
Carolyn Van Houten is a staff photojournalist at the Washington Post. She was a recipient of the Overseas Press Club's Robert Capa Gold Medal, RFK Human Rights Award, and was named one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in Media. She was on the team that won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting. @vanhoutenphoto https://twitter.com/vanhoutenphoto
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/interactive/2024/new-orleans-police-child-sexual-abuse-rodney-vicknair/
= new reply since forum marked as read
who apparently knew he was abusing minors for over 30 years. Good that he's dead now from a brain tumor but 
only 6 months in prison for this repeat offender?
There are plenty of opportunities for reforms and culture change in policing. The article claims NOPD has changed nothing since this case came to light. NOPD's excuse was that he did the abuse on his own time outside of official duty.
Maybe we need more female officers for these situations? The girl was 14 and about 100 pounds.
...he should have gotten absolute immunity!
How else can he do his job!
Good riddance asshole...
I found his funeral home photo/thoughts & obits using google images from just looking up the creep for knowledge.
