An Upstate New York woman is demanding justice after she says a Syracuse police officer forced her to have sex with him in front of her newborn son in February 2015. Maleatra Montanez filed a $7 million suit against Chester Thompson and top brass within the Syracuse Police Department. In an exclusive interview with New York Daily News, Montanez recounted the horrific night.
She called police on Valentine’s Day to report her missing teenage daughter who had left following a dispute. Syracuse police officer Chester Thompson was dispatched to her home. When he arrived, Montanez says Thompson immediately made her feel uncomfortable. According to a sworn deposition, Montanez said Thompson called her “pretty” with a big butt and her “lips looked like it can hold…a penis”.
Once he realized Montanez was home alone with her son, she recalled him forcing her to perform oral sex and then eventually raping her as the baby watched.
“He put the condom on and told me to face my son-to look at my son,” she said.
Before he left, Montanez told NY Daily News that Thompson repeatedly asked if she had intentions of reporting him, noting that he had a wife and children at home. The next day, Montanez went to the hospital and made a report with Syracuse police.
Thompson was arrested and formally charged in March 2015, but not with rape.
By December 2015, Thompson pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of official misconduct for having sex with Montanez and another woman in three unrelated incidents while on duty ranging from June 2013 to February 2015. He claims each instance was consensual. Thompson was fired from the force and sentenced to three years probation, in an agreement.
Montanez protested outside the courtroom.
Montanez says she felt intimated by the uniform and kept staring at Thompson’s gun, feeling helpless in the situation.
“Why didn’t I stab him?” she asked. “Why I didn’t scream out my front door. Why I didn’t do nothing.” Montanez remembers pleading with tears in her eyes, “We don’t have to do this.”
In her suit, the mother of four believes the department knew about Thompson’s behavior and turned a blind eye.
“We’ve had information from several sources that this is not the first time that Chester Thompson has engaged in this type of malfeasance,” said her civil lawyer, Ed Sivin. “And it appears that this may have been going on for a period of years. And that people high up in the Syracuse Police Department knew about it and didn’t take prompt remedial measures against him.”
