Joseph Anthony, 39, a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer was indicted today on charges of first degree kidnapping and first degree sex offense against an adult with serious injury. His bail is set at $10,000.CMPD's Chief Darrel Stephens held a press conference today and said the incident occurred on November 27, 2007. Officer Anthony was on-duty and responded to a missing person call.
The following day, a fellow officer reported the incident after they heard the victim talk about what happened to her. Within three hours, CMPD put the nine year veteran on administrative leave, pending an investigation.
Police are not elaborating on what exactly happened but they do say the officer was with the woman for approximately 45 minutes, she was not raped and the kidnapping charge stems from him moving her room to room.
After the police finished their investigation, the case was presented to the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office, who determined they had enough evidence to seek an indictment against Anthony.
In the press conference today, Chief Darrel Stephens said, “These charges sicken me and all of the other men and women of this department. In fact, it is due to the integrity of fellow officers that we got information that enabled us to pursue the investigation.”
“As difficult as it is for any police department to have charges against one of their own, the CMPD aggressively pursues any allegations of misconduct because nothing is more important than the integrity of the force." (Read CMPD Media Brief)