One of three Oklahoma law enforcement agents accused in separate on-duty sexual assault cases has been found guilty of sex crime charges.
Gerald Nuckolls, 27, was charged with three counts of sexual battery, two counts of indecent exposure, and one count of outraging public decency after he was accused of sexually assaulting two different women while on duty. Prosecutors subsequently dismissed the public indecency charge and one sexual battery charge, and Nuckolls was ordered to stand trial on two counts each of sexual battery and indecent exposure.
Nuckolls was first accused in September 2014 after a woman said the deputy came to her home claiming to be investigating a hang-up 9-1-1 call. She said that Nuckolls said he needed to search the premises for illegal drugs, and accompanied her into the garage. Once in the garage, she testified, Nuckolls began making inappropriate comments, pinched her breast, and pulled open the top of her dress. She said he then exposed himself to her.
After his arrest, Nuckolls told investigators the he had "a problem for pretty women," and that he had engaged in sexual contact and/or exchanged nude photos with at least six women he met on duty. Investigators contacted one of the woman that Nuckolls said he had sexual contact with, who told them that Nuckolls had exposed himself to her and forced her to touch his genitals when he responded to a call about the woman sitting alone in her vehicle and drinking.
At his trial, Nuckolls testified in his own defense, saying that, although having sexual contact with the women while on duty was unprofessional, he did not sexually assault anyone. Instead, he testified, the women initiated sexual contact. In the alleged incident in the garage, Nuckolls said, the woman pulled down her own dress, asking him if he wanted to see her tattoo.
Although he testified that a sex addiction led him to participate in inappropriate activity with the women, he says that his actions were not criminal, denying that either woman was in custody or detained. He argued that his uniform, in and of itself, is not a use of force in consensual sexual encounters.
At the end of the trial, a jury found Nuckolls guilty of one count each of sexual battery and indecent exposure while acquitting him of an additional count of each. Although he faced up to 10 years in prison for each offense, the jury recommended of four years on each count. The former Sheriff's deputy was taken into custody and held without bond pending his formal sentencing, which is scheduled for November.
