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Cop Arrested for 2 Different Sexual Assaults Within the Same Week

Abderrazak Boukhatmi of the El Paso Police Department has been taken into custody for both alleged crimes.
American policeman controlling the traffic in an urban area.
American policeman controlling the traffic in an urban area. (Stock Image/Getty)

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An El Paso police officer was arrested twice in one week for two different sexual assaults that allegedly happened less than a year apart.

Abderrazak Boukhatmi, 34, of the El Paso Police Department, has been accused of forcing himself onto a 19-year-old in the bathroom of a West El Paso apartment complex while working an off-duty security job earlier this month. Boukhatmi allegedly told the teen, who was using the building’s pool after it had been closed, that he wouldn’t tell the building’s management about her trespassing after he assaulted her, according to court documents obtained by the El Paso Times.

But two days after police announced Boukhatmi was taken into custody, the department said that a 27-year-old woman came forward and accused him of sexually assaulting her in a nearly identical way last year.

Boukhatmi’s alleged assault of the teen took place May 16, according to police. He found the 19-year-old and her friend in the bathroom while patrolling the building complex around 10:30 p.m. that night. After a brief argument with Boukhatmi, the friend of the alleged victim left. Boukhatmi then entered the restroom, where the 19-year-old remained. The officer told the girl that he wasn’t going to tell the building manager about trespassing, according to the El Paso Times. 

He then allegedly pushed her against a wall, began forcibly kissing her, and attempted to remove her bikini bottoms, even as she said she needed to leave and that he was scaring her. Preventing her from leaving the bathroom, he then allegedly grabbed her head and forced her to perform oral sex on him, according to the El Paso Times. 

“Now that you did that, I am not going to report you to the manager,” the officer said after the alleged encounter, according to the affidavit.

Boukhatmi was arrested by El Paso police on May 18 and charged with sexual assault. He was  booked at the El Paso County Detention Facility on a $45,000 bond, according to police.

Boukhatmi allegedly told police that the entire encounter was consensual, the El Paso Times reported.

Immediately after his arrest, a 27-year-old woman told police that Boukhatmi assaulted her in a similar manner, according to police. The two allegedly met online a week before meeting in person at a local park on June 12 of 2020 at 11:30 a.m. After a brief conversation, the victim said that Boukhatmi forced the woman to perform oral sex on him, according to police.

He now faces a separate $100,000 bond in that charge.

El Paso Police Department has since placed the officer on administrative leave, according to a statement from the law enforcement agency

“Chief Greg Allen wants to assure the public that such an abhorrently shameful act by an individual within the ranks of the police department is intolerable and will be investigated swiftly and thoroughly,” the El Paso Police Department said in the statement.

Boukhatmi’s arrest follows several high-profile instances of police officers abusing their power and targeting women for sexual assault. 

In 2019, a 19-year veteran of the Lowell Police Department was charged with raping a 16-year-old homeless girl in exchange for not placing her under arrest for outstanding warrants three years prior. Later that year, two NYPD officers were sentenced to five years probation for sexually assaulting an 18-year-old girl suspected of having marijuana and anti-anxiety drugs in her possession. Last September, a New Orleans police officer was fired for grooming, harassing and raping a 14-year-old he stayed in touch with after driving the teen to the hospital after she was raped.