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Criteria for determining media misrepresentation of rape include:
  • victim is treated with disbelief

  • victim is portrayed as sexually promiscuous, or as partially responsible for the crime

  • victim's voice is absent from coverage, while perpetrator's voice is present

  • victim's past experiences are discussed while perpetrator's are not

Excerpts from “2 Cops In Sex Rap – Busted After Traffic Stop; B’klyn Cops Arrested on Sex Rap” By Larry Celona and Erika Martinez,
New York Post, November 21, 2005


Two on-duty Brooklyn cops were arrested last night on charges of sexually abusing a woman they stopped for a traffic infraction, police said.

Officers Charles McGeean, 37, and Fernand Clerge, 38, both of the 83rd Precinct, stopped the woman for not wearing a seat belt at Irving and Myrtle Avenues in Bushwick at about 3:10 a.m.

The officers followed the 35-year-old woman back to her nearby apartment, where the alleged abuse took place, authorities said.

Five other people - four children and an adult - were inside the apartment at the time, sources said.

It's not clear what, if anything, they saw…

One of the sources said investigators are looking into the possibility that the woman recognized one of the cops - and invited both back to her apartment.

That source said McGeean stayed downstairs and never went inside the apartment…

McGeean was in the apartment briefly, but he groped the woman without her consent while he was there, according to the second source.

While upstairs, Clerge allegedly fondled the woman against her will and engaged in a sexual encounter with her.

Investigators collected a DNA sample, the sources said.

They also searched both cops' lockers at the station house, according to the sources. It's not clear what they found.

The sexual-abuse charges are based on the fondling allegations. One of the sources claimed the woman's alleged sexual encounter with Clerge was consensual.

The cops were arrested at about 7:15 p.m. and both were immediately suspended. They are also expected to face departmental charges.

They were charged last night with attempted criminal sex act in the first degree; first-degree attempted sex abuse; third-degree sex abuse and official misconduct.

The woman refused medical attention.

McGeean is a 13-year veteran and Clerge has been on the job for seven years.

McGeean is married with at least one child, a source said.

It was not immediately known if Clerge is married.