A former Salem police officer will not be re-tried on rape and sex-abuse charges over which a jury deadlocked in June. The decision to drop the remaining charges against Sterling Alexander, 39, was announced in court Monday morning by Marion County Deputy District Attorney Jodie Bureta. "We put on the best case we could have possibly put on, the jury was a good jury, and they couldn't render a verdict on those charges," Bureta said after the court session. "There's no reason to believe another jury could come to a verdict."
The jury did find Alexander guilty of second-degree sex abuse and official misconduct, convictions for which he will be sentenced Oct. 1 by Circuit Judge Albin Norblad. Alexander had been scheduled to receive his sentence Monday, but it was delayed so a psychologist can perform a psychosexual evaluation for use in sentencing.
Such evaluations often are ordered prior to sentencing, especially in crafting sentences for sex offense cases, Bureta said. The evaluation will include a full-disclosure polygraph in which Alexander could be asked about other victims or criminal behavior.
The jury found Alexander guilty in June of sexually abusing a 17-year-old girl he met on duty in 2003, while he was a Salem policeman. Sex abuse involves intercourse without the victim's consent.
Jurors also found him guilty of official misconduct in an incident in which he received oral sex from a Salem city employee during a ride-along in 2004.
But they deadlocked about whether Alexander had raped the 17-year-old girl or sexually abused the city employee. Those were the charges dropped Monday.
Alexander was found not guilty of kidnapping or strangling the 17-year-old girl, and not guilty of sexually abusing a third alleged victim from Stayton.
His attorney, Kevin Lafky, said he was pleased the district attorney decided not to re-try the charges, and to drop two charges of official misconduct that were set to be tried separately.
"At least now we have an end in sight," Lafky said. "We obviously think it's an appropriate decision. We always believed that Mr. Alexander was not guilty of the charges the jury hung over."
The decision to drop the charges also spares the victims a years-long wait for a retrial, Bureta said. "It's too important for the victims and the community to have some closure," she said.
Alexander declined to comment Monday outside the Marion County Courthouse.
He joined the Salem police force in March 2003, but resigned in July 2004 after superiors found that he had used a city-owned digital camera to take sexually explicit pictures. At the time of his resignation, he was the city's only African-American officer.
Oregon State Police troopers arrested Alexander before Christmas in December 2005, charging him with rape of the teenage girl.
(statesmanjournal.com)
