A former JPD officer who brutally raped a woman during a traffic stop was released from prison in July.
Maceo Simmons was a JPD officer in September 1999 when he and fellow JPD officer Thomas Catchings pulled over a car with the victim, S.R., and her boyfriend. Simmons busted S.R. for possessing marijuana and placed her under arrest. He handcuffed her and placed her in the back of her police car. He booked the boyfriend but things did not end there.
Simmons radioed Catchings to follow his vehicle to an "unlit and isolated area." It was 2 AM. A prosecution filing states:
While Catchings acted as lookout, Defendant sexually assaulted S.R. Defendant unzipped his pants and exposed himself, grabbing S.R.’s head and forcing it into his lap to perform oral sex. S.R. testified that Defendant held her head so tightly there was nothing she could do to stop it. Defendant then told her that she was not doing it correctly and forced her to get out of the car. Once outside the car, Defendant forced her to perform oral sex a second time. He told S.R., who was crying, to pull down her pants and bent her over the trunk of his car, forcing himself into her and penetrating her both vaginally and anally. S.R. testified that she was scared for her life throughout the ordeal and believed she might be shot or killed. After Defendant finished, he asked Catchings if he wanted a turn. Catchings instead drove the sobbing S.R. home and warned her not to tell anyone about the incident. S.R. immediately reported the incident to loved ones and the Rape Crisis Center but did not initially report to police out of fear of retribution. She ultimately reported the incident to police 13 months later. Following the Defendant’s conviction in federal court and a series of appeals and remands, he was ultimately sentenced to 240 months in prison.
The Justice Department issued the following statement after the 2005 conviction:
On March 1, 2005, the Justice Department announced the conviction of Maceo Simmons, a former Jackson, Mississippi police officer, on civil rights charges relating to the rape of a young woman in police custody.
Simmons was convicted of assaulting the teenage victim and willfully depriving her of her constitutional right to bodily integrity. The federal conviction for the September 19, 1999, sexual assault follows a 2001 state criminal trial in which the defendant and another officer were acquitted. In addition to finding the defendant guilty, the jury specified that it also found that the defendant’s conduct involved aggravated sexual abuse and caused bodily injury to the victim. These special findings raise the defendant’s maximum sentence to life in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for May 20, 2005.
A Hinds County jury acquitted Simmons three years earlier but Simmons did not get away with his crimes. The Justice Department picked up the ball and ran with it all the way to a conviction of depriving S.R. of her civil rights. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The case went through several appeals and resentencings but when it was all said and done, Simmons's prison sentence remained at 20 years.
The Bureau of Prisons released Simmons on July 1, 2024. He is 68 years old.
31 comments:
Please ladies! If you are assaulted in any manner, take action immediately. Don't waste time. It is up to you to make the first move towards your own justice.
He served his time. She was a dope fiend. Why is this news?
In state court he would have received a blessing.
If he was initially acquitted, how was his ultimate conviction not double jeopardy?
12:14 Because it was a Federal Crime that sent him to prison. Catchings should have gone to Federal Prison Too! IMO
I'll translate 11:43's comment - "It's ok to rape women if they are on drugs"
11:43 please don’t reproduce. Being a dope fiend doesn’t give anyone a right to rape you.
Is Catchings the same Officer Thomas Catchings who was killed in 2005 and has a street named after him?
WTH does her status have to do with someone assaulting her? Please say it loud enough for those of us who aren't as smart as you.
As I remember it, this was about the time the (metaphoric) dam burst, and people gave up on trying to make things better, then began fleeing Jackson (and, frequently, Mississippi). I'd never heard about this particular case (we were busy moving ourselves and our businesses to Madison), but it provides a good snapshot of conditions in Jackson, at that pivotal time. So, if anybody is really wondering why everybody's moved away...
Where are all the "de-fund the police" and social justice warriors protesting this crooked, violent, ex-cop's release?
If I'm not mistaken, I think Simmons's accessory-after-the-fact, and obstructionist of justice, Thomas Catchings, has a street in West Jackson named after him, after he was killed by a carjacker in 2005.
Please correct me if I have the wrong Thomas Catchings.
A young woman was arrested for possession of weed, and was brutally raped by the cop who arrested her.
You must not have daughters, and I hope you don’t have sons.
to the moron at 11;43.........it s always newsworthy when a ex-cop rapist hits the streets again.
@1:58PM & 2:20PM - y’all are correct…the street used to be known as South Drive
look at the mental gymnastics and lack of common sense! if this woman hadn’t been out trying to score dope in the late hours she wouldn’t have been raped. That is a simple fact and that doesn’t mean I condone the rape. It means the rape was a consequence of her choices. The officer was wrong for recognizing that this woman was a drug addicted dreg and preying upon her. But she is definately not innocent.
you make me wanna f....ing puke
"drug addicted dreg"
dude, she got busted for possession of weed.
@3:38 PM - I heard that your wife cheats on her taxes. That should make it ok to rape her?
Digging into the weeds of the initial story posted above, how is this possible?
"S.R. immediately reported the incident to loved ones and the Rape Crisis Center but did not initially report to police out of fear of retribution. She ultimately reported the incident to police 13 months later."
So, is it true that a 'rape crisis center' has no obligation to report rape to the authorities? Hospitals do. Counselors do. Youth Services does. Facilities that house and serve troubled youth do.
What the hell?
Just got a ticket for improper tint (factory tint with window decals denoting such) from JPD. I even pointed the decals out to the officer who insisted that I placed them there. The original infraction was 40 in a 35.
Not in the mood to have my face on a t-shirt, I begrudgingly stopped conversing and took the citation. Be careful these hombres prey upon people given the opportunity, yet cower when in the face of violent criminals.
I have never understood why many of the people who post here think it is significant that they moved out of Jackson. Those of us who live in Jackson don’t care.
It's Mississippi. Some podunk one-horse town PD will hire him. Background check? We don't need no stinkin' background check.
@7:21 Be careful. People like @11:43 and @3:38 believes that criminals like you deserve it if the cops drive you to an undisclosed location and rape you.
Looks like his partner, disgraced Officer Catchings was killed on duty in 2005. How does a cop who helped his partner kidnap and rape a woman, return to the force? At least he paid for his crime, but have to wonder how many more victims are out there. Police who kidnap, rape, or torture should be given an automatic death sentence.
@8:28 everyone can read the comment and that is clearly not what was written. Stop being unhinged and take your meds
I always felt that Thomas Catchings, God rest his soul, should have received time too. I really don't understand how he was allowed to stay on the force. Simmons can follow Torrence Mayfield to whatever podunk town he will be chief of next. It doesn't look like the Feds are gonna put him away any time soon.
If you're 8:28 and 11:43, you're the last person who should be dispensing psychiatric advice. Your comments on the victim's lack of innocence are deranged.
@5:23 true. Rape crisis centers and counselors do not have to report rape unless it’s a minor. Many want healing but do not want to press charges. If someone would rape you for weed possession, imagine what you would fear they would be capable of if you told anyone.
"I begrudgingly stopped conversing and took the citation."
So you somehow managed to summon the resources to control yourself and fight the ticket in court, instead of on the side of the road.
Congratulations.
Employing your (dumber than shit) logic, every person who has ever been the victim of a homicide, for example, is partly guilty for being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
You're of the same perverted mentality who say women are to blame for being raped if they were attractive and wore the 'wrong kind of attire'.
You have probably already reproduced, and, for that, the rest of us are terribly saddened.
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