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NYPD Judge Finds Two Officers Guilty Of Statutory Rape Of 15-Year-Old
By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Jul 28, 2021
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By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Jul 28, 2021
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The NYPD has fired two officers after a department trial found them guilty of the statutory rape of a 15-year-old girl.
The officers — Sanad Musallam, 34, and Yaser Shohatee, 41 — committed "shocking professional and sexual misconduct" by abusing a vulnerable young girl whose family had sought help from the department, according to internal NYPD disciplinary documents made public this week.
Between 2015 and 2016, both officers carried out months-long relationships with the minor, which included statutory rape and hundreds of text messages that featured sexually explicit photographs, Assistant Deputy Commissioner of Trials Paul Gamble wrote in his ruling.
While the allegations were first reported to the NYPD and the Brooklyn District Attorney in 2017, the officers remained on the department payroll until an internal trial concluded this past March.
According to a spokesperson for the Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, they were not criminally charged because the victim declined to participate in legal proceedings.
Shohatee said that he first met the victim after her mother brought her into a local precinct, seeking professional help for her “problematic” behavior. He suggested she join the Explorer program, which provides young people with an introduction to a career in law enforcement.
The two eventually struck up a relationship, exchanging over 800 text messages, the department found. They also communicated over Snapchat, where Shohatee requested nude photos and asked if she “would be down to have sex,” the victim alleged. In interviews with police investigators, the minor said that she had sex with Shohatee “four or five times at his apartment.”
In his testimony, Shohatee acknowledged that he spent time with the girl after work hours, including inside his home, but maintained that he was trying to help the girl, and did not engage in any inappropriate conduct.
Judge Gamble deemed that narrative “self-serving and largely unworthy of belief,” adding that the officer's own admissions would “cause any responsible adult, let alone a parent, to recoil in horror.”
An attorney for Shohatee could not be reached.
The second officer, Musallam, was found to have raped the 15-year-old while off-duty. According to Judge Gamble, he met the girl after her mother reported her missing, then proceeded to “cultivate a flirtatious relationship, which grew increasingly sexual.”
They exchanged 742 text messages, including a photograph, sent by the teenager, of her in underwear. While Musallam reprimanded the girl for sending the photo, he did not report it to his superiors or alert the girl’s mother, according to the judge. The photo remained on Musallam’s phone and was later discovered by his wife.
“Whether he retained the image as a trophy of his illicit relationship with The Minor or as a cudgel against her credibility, there is no reasonable explanation for his continued possession of the photograph that is consistent with innocence,” Judge Gamble wrote.
An attorney for Musallam, Roger Blank, accused the young girl of manipulating his client, who he said was “trying to help her out as a troubled youth.” He said there was no evidence of sexual contact, and that the decision was “based on the politics of the Me Too movement and the lack of courage on the department’s behalf.”
It’s not the first time that NYPD officers have been accused of preying on young women. In 2017, an 18-year-old accused two NYPD detectives of raping her in a Chipotle parking lot following a drug stop. Both detectives later pled guilty to bribery and official misconduct for having sex with the Brooklyn teenager in their police van.
At the time, there was no state law prohibiting sex between officers and someone in their custody. They served no prison time, but were sentenced to five years probation.
Detective Sophia Mason, an NYPD spokesperson, said that the termination of Musallam and Shohatee showed the department’s disciplinary process was effective.
“There is zero tolerance in the NYPD for corruption of any kind and these two former officers forfeited their privilege to be part of our proud Police Department by disgracefully violating their oaths of office and the public trust,” Mason said.
She did not respond to inquiries about whether the officers faced any discipline or modification during the four-year investigation.
Inquiries to the police union representing the two officers were not returned.
Tagged
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statuatory rape
discipline
nypd trial
Jake Offenhartz
Jake Offenhartz is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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