Former Maryland Cop Charged With Rape And Attempting To Infect Victim With HIV
A former Maryland cop was indicated on nearly a dozen charges after allegedly raping a woman and attempting to infect her with HIV.
According to the Prince George’s County Police Department, CNN reports, Marique Vanderpool, 30, who is HIV-positive, is accused of raping a woman after a traffic stop when he was an officer in Fairmount Heights.
Vanderpool and another officer stopped the woman’s car last September and Vanderpool asked her to get out, CNN reports.
According to a release from the police department, one of the officers handcuffed her and called for a tow truck to take her car, CNN reports.
The police also stated, CNN reports, that after Vanderpool took the woman to the police station, he "demanded the victim engage in a sex act or be arrested. The victim complied."
Police said he then issued the woman some traffic tickets before driving her to retrieve her car in the impound lot, CNN reports.
After receiving a question about the traffic stop and arrest, the Fairmount Heights Police started looking into the case, CNN reports. It’s unclear who posed the question about the case.
Police said they discovered that Vanderpool is HIV positive during the investigation and the victim was provided with preventative medication, according to police chief Hank Stawinski, CNN reports. The victim’s HIV status has not been disclosed.
During a news conference Wednesday (Jan. 22), Stawinski said, CNN reports, "This conduct creates in me concerns that we have other people that may have been impacted whether as the victims of crime or in relationships with the individual in question.”
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Stawinski added, "There's two pieces to this ... additional crimes that may have occurred in our community and then there's concerns about the public health," CNN reports.
According to a court document, CNN reports, indictments against Vanderpool include first-and second-degree rape, having sex with a person in custody, attempting to transfer HIV and misconduct in office.
After Vanderpool was arrested in December, a judge dismissed the first-degree rape charge in January, but the police said a grand jury, “after receiving all the evidence,” included it in the indictment, CNN reports.
On a charge of reckless endangerment, the indictment said Vanderpool had intercourse "knowing that he had human immunodeficiency virus that created a substantial risk of death or serious physical injury" to the woman, CNN reports.
