Officer Marcus Jackson Charged with Sexual Assault Had Prior Record

Fox News is reporting nationally the story that ran in the Charlotte Observer earlier about a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer, Marcus Jackson, who was fired and has been charged with 3 counts of sexual assault on two different women he pulled for traffic offenses.

We were rather suspicious when the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Rodney Monroe said "it would be naïve" to believe that the officer hadn't assaulted other women. He issued the officer's mug shot to the media, hoping other potential victims will come forward, according the Charlotte Observer.

Sure enough, there is more. Now we learn that this same officer apparently has a previous record of domestic violence and was at one time order not to carry a gun by a restraining ordered issued against him. But he was not convicted.

He actually has two records, one 2003 and another in 2005. CPD admitted they knew about the 2003 complaint but contended that a criminal records check turned up nothing on the 2005 incident. So he was hired in 2008 as a police officer.

The current charges are that on December 18 Jackson pulled a 17 year-old girl and offered to not write her a ticket if she performed sex acts on him. Then a 21-year old woman came forward to say that Jackson had pulled her and forced her to commit similar acts.

There is some question about whether the CPD knew about the first attack before the second one took place.

The revelations follow a number of reports in recent months about other law enforcement officers being involved in sex acts, some with victims they had pulled. Other reports were related to highway patrol troopers engaging in sex acts while on duty and some were alleged to be in patrol cars.

There have been similar reports from New Jersey, and Tennessee.

And of course, most of our readers are well aware of the reports of similar activities in the N. C. Highway Patrol. As McClatchy reports, there have been at least 27 cases of sexual misconduct in the Patrol since 1998.

After a previous story similar to this one ran on the Beaufort Observer we received reports of other incidents that have not been reported. One former state trooper indicated to us that "it is a common occurrence and it is known by supervisors who even joke about it at times."