Tuesday, May 11, 1999

Ex-cop guilty of soliciting sex for silence

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Also convicted of sexual battery

BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Former District 3 Police Officer Patrick Knight was found guilty Monday of soliciting bribes and sexual battery. (Gary Landers photo) | ZOOM |

        Former District 3 Cincinnati Police Officer Patrick Knight was convicted Monday of twice soliciting bribes — in the form of sex — from women he could have arrested on open warrants.

        Prosecutors said Mr. Knight was in uniform and on patrol when he propositioned a woman on July 31, 1995, and another woman on Oct. 19, 1995.

        The woman propositioned on July 31 apparently refused. Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Robert Kraft convicted Mr. Knight of sexual battery because the second woman acquiesced.

        The judge acquitted Mr. Knight of six similar charges involving a third woman, calling prosecution evidence “hopelessly confusing, woefully inadequate, and devoid of any indicia of reliability.”

        Judge Kraft — who heard the trial without a jury and handed down the verdict “with a heavy heart” — previously dismissed one charge in volving a fourth woman.

        Mr. Knight, 36, was impassive as the verdict was read, his bond was revoked and deputies led him away in handcuffs.

        He will be held until sentencing on June 11.

        Mr. Knight faces a maximum of two years in prison on each conviction.

        “Six is better than 20,” defense attorney Merlyn Shiverdecker said, noting the case began with 10 charges.

        Mr. Shiverdecker said it was too soon to say whether his client would appeal.

        Of the thousands of criminal cases he has handled since taking his place on the bench in February 1967, Judge Kraft said, “None that I can remember has presented me with a more difficult task than this one.”

        The judge said he has developed “an enormous amount of respect and admiration for law enforcement as a profession and for the people in blue who place their lives on the line each and every day.”

        However, “the mission of civilian law enforcement agencies is so inextricably woven into the fabric of American life that any time there is an alleged or perceived deviation by one of its members from the high standard that the profession and the public demands, it causes special concern in the community.”

        Mr. Knight was fired after being indicted.

       

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