A police officer stuffed his hand down the trousers of a female motorist who he had stopped for suspected drunk driving and said he’d only let her go if she showed him her breasts, a court heard.
The alleged victim claims San Diego police officer Anthony Arevalos put her through a two-hour ordeal during which he asked if her breasts were real and whether she had participated in any wet T-shirt competitions.
Arevalos faces 18 felony counts, including sexual battery, assault and battery by an officer, asking for a bribe and false imprisonment.
The woman was testifying at a preliminary hearing for Arevalos, 40, who was fired from the San Diego Police Department in April after allegedly stopping a number of female motorists and demanding sexual favors in return for letting them go.
She told the court she had been driving along Fourth Avenue near Island Avenue in San Diego when Officer Arevalos signaled for her to stop.
She said: ‘He thought I was sitting at the stop sign too long.’
She claimed the officer, who served 18 years, repeatedly asked her to get out of the car and take a breath-test but that she had declined to do either.
Later he said he would let her go if she showed him her breasts.
The woman, one of five alleged victims due to testify at the hearing, said she eventually lifted her top and ‘flashed’ officer Arevalos.
She explained how she had felt ‘upset’ as Arevalos stood in the open doorway of her Honda Civic and asked questions about her body.
She claimed he brushed his hand against one of her breasts as he held the breath machine close.
She told the court: ‘He said, ‘Can you feel that? Does it feel good?’’
To which she replied: ‘Actually, no. It kind of hurts,’ at which point he backed off.
He then put his hand down her low-rise jeans, touching her bare skin.
Deputy District Attorney Sherry Thompson has filed four additional charges for similar conduct involving three more women.
Arevalos, who has pleaded not guilty, faces up to 20 years in prison.
Some of the women admitted that they had been drinking before they were stopped.
One alleged victim, a nursing student, said she had offered Arevalos cash to let her go and that he had declined and had asked her what else she could offer that was ‘out of the books’.
