$1M verdict for teen, already a victim when she was assaulted by an officer

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The city of New Orleans owes $1 million to a teenager who was already a victim of sexual assault when a city police offer with a history of misconduct complaints continued the abuse — pretending to be a friend and mentor before eventually assaulting her himself.

The verdict came Wednesday after a three-day trial, according to New Orleans news outlets. In the 2021 lawsuit, lawyers for the victim and her family said the officer, Rodney Vicknair, was assigned to transport the victim to a hospital “despite a history of complaints, specifically including predatory behavior towards women,” authorities said.

The lawsuit cast the police department as irresponsible in assigning Vicknair to transport the girl, and too slow to act on a complaint, enabling him to assault the victim before he was arrested. Shaun Ferguson, the now-retired superintendent, is also a defendant.

Vicknair had been a New Orleans police officer since 2007, according to court records. He was sentenced to a 14-year federal sentence in the related criminal case. Court records show that he died on Jan. 1 of this year.

Initially arrested on state charges that included sexual battery, Vicknair had pleaded guilty in federal court to deprivation of rights under color of law.

Prosecutors said at the time of his arrest that Vicknair, while transferring the victim to the hospital in 2020, offered to become the girl’s friend and mentor and often showed up at her house unannounced. But in time, according to court documents, he began making comments to her that were sexual in nature, eventually persuading her to send him sexually explicit pictures of herself that he kept on his phone. Sexual molestation began when she was 14 and continued after she was 15, according to court records.

The lawsuit alleged there were multiple assaults by Vicknair, including one that happened after police received a report about his behavior but before he was arrested.

News outlets said the city’s lawyer declined comment Wednesday.