Suspended Trooper Charged With Rape, Kidnapping And Assault

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) _ A suspended Utah Highway Patrol Trooper accused of demanding sex from women and threatening them while in uniform was charged Friday with multiple counts of rape and other crimes.

Ernest B. Wilcock, 31, who was suspended without pay Monday, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail, where he was being held on $5,000 bond, said Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Captain Bob Jack.

Wilcock was charged with aggravated assault and one count of attempted rape in a Sunday incident in which a woman claimed he picked her up downtown and threatened her with arrest if she did not have sex with him, said Deputy Salt Lake County Attorney Ernie Jones.

The woman escaped by jumping into Wilcock’s patrol car, and he fired his service automatic 13 times as she drove away, authorities said.

Wilcock also was charged with two counts of rape and two counts of aggravated kidnapping in incidents involving another woman.

Wilcock allegedly stopped the woman’s car last September and threatened to arrest her for drunk driving and take her children away from her unless she had sex with him, according to court documents.

Last month, a law enforcement officer in uniform again stopped the same woman and threatened to arrest her, the complaint stated. The victim advised authorities of both incidents. But, ″the defendant gave a false name to the victim so it was difficult to determine the identity of the officer,″ the complaint said.

Highway Patrol officials have recommended that Wilcock by fired for alleged gross misconduct, but spokesman Gary Whitney said no decision would be made until state Public Safety Director John T. Nielsen reviews all complaints filed against the trooper.

The woman involved in Sunday’s incident, Amy Schaefer, 20, claimed Wilcock picked her up downtown after she had been to a party and told her he would deliver her to her suburban home.

Schaefer claimed he instead took her to a construction site and threatened to arrest her for public intoxication if she did not have sex with him.

Schaefer said the trooper removed her from the car, handcuffed her and repeated his demand, then released her when she threatened to report him.

She said she jumped into the car, locked the trooper out and drove away.

On Tuesday, three other women told police they had been sexually harassed by a uniformed man who said he was a law enforcement officer.