Report: Sex assault suit against ex-police officer settled
ABERDEEN, Miss. (AP) — A confidential settlement has been reached in a federal lawsuit accusing a now-jailed former Mississippi police officer of sexually assaulting a woman while he was on duty, a news outlet reported.
The settlement led U.S. District Court Judge Sharion Aycock on Wednesday to dismiss the case against former Booneville police officer Dustin Rambo and Police Chief Michael Ramey, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reported. The case was scheduled to go to trial in October 2023.
Rambo was arrested by FBI agents in March 2021 and charged with five violations, including one felony count of deprivation of rights for the alleged assault of the woman. He later pleaded guilty to four misdemeanor counts in federal court for stealing money from multiple people during traffic stops, searches and arrests. The sexual assault charge was dropped and replaced with a felony charge of making false statements to a federal agent, which meant Rambo did not have to register as a sex offender.
He was sentenced to 16 months in prison in February.
The woman’s lawsuit accused Rambo of picking her up near a motel in August 2020 and driving her to an isolated location. The woman said she initially thought she had been arrested but that Rambo dragged her out of the patrol car and sexually assaulted her.
She said Rambo told her no one would believe her after she threatened to report the assault. She said she ran away while he was putting his clothes back on, the newspaper reported.
The lawsuit also claimed that the city of Booneville knew or should have known about misconduct that cost Rambo jobs with other law enforcement agencies.
Rambo is serving his sentence in a Fort Worth, Texas, federal prison. The 35-year-old from Fulton, Mississippi, is scheduled to be released in May 2023.
