A sheriff's detective who is accused of forcibly fondling a prostitute while on duty was named in 2003 lawsuit alleging similar behavior with a woman he pulled over in Santee, according to court records.
Thomas J. Sadler, 47, a 20-year veteran of the county Sheriff's Department, was arrested by San Diego sex-crimes detectives Thursday afternoon at the Santee home he shares with his wife.
“Obviously, it's very disturbing to all law enforcement,” San Diego police acting Assistant Chief Jim Collins said in a news conference yesterday. “Especially when he's on duty with his police car and showing his badge and weapon.”
El Cajon attorney Eric Hart, who represented the woman in 2003, said he's upset that Sadler remained on the street after the sexual-battery lawsuit five years ago. The case was settled out of court in 2004, and the terms are confidential.
“We spent a lot of time with internal affairs before we filed the lawsuit,” Hart said yesterday. “Our only goal was to see justice served, and they completely blew us off. We suspected someone else would be a victim.”
Undersheriff Bill Gore said yesterday that he could not discuss prior personnel issues and had not reviewed the lawsuit, which named Sadler and the county.
In the most recent case, Sadler, who is assigned to the Lemon Grove station, was on duty and driving his assigned, unmarked Ford Taurus at 10:30 a.m. Feb. 6 when he pulled up alongside a prostitute sitting on a bus bench on El Cajon Boulevard in North Park, according to an arrest warrant.
He identified himself as a “sheriff's officer” and ordered the woman to get into his car. He drove her to Camino Del Rio South in Mission Valley, next to Dave & Buster's restaurant, and parked. Police said he fondled the woman's genitals, then pulled up her bra and groped her breasts.
At least three witnesses saw the incident and called 911 to report a kidnapping in progress, Collins said.
When the woman was finally released, she tried to take a picture of the car's license plate, but Sadler took the phone and disabled it, according to the arrest warrant.
The woman called San Diego police six days later to say she had spotted Sadler and had written down the plate number of his car.
Police went to the Lemon Grove station to question him, but he refused to give a statement, the warrant said.
The next day, the woman and two witnesses identified Sadler in a photo lineup.
Sadler was charged Thursday with sexual battery by restraint, assault and battery by an officer and false imprisonment. He was released on $250,000 bail.
Collins said part of the reason the investigation took so long was because Sadler was a peace officer. “Obviously, when a law enforcement officer is involved, we make sure we have pretty good information to make the charges,” he said.
Sadler has been placed on unpaid leave pending the outcome of the case.
An arraignment is scheduled for Thursday in San Diego Superior Court.
“We're all saddened,” Gore said. “But we take it very seriously because of the need to have the public's confidence.”
Nicole Bowman, 34, said yesterday that the incident was eerily similar to an encounter she had with Sadler in 2002.
In a federal lawsuit, she claimed Sadler pulled her over in a dark Vons parking lot on Mission Gorge Road after she left a Santee bar about 11:30 p.m. June 29, 2002
She had not been drinking, Bowman said, but only stopped at the bar to take care of details for her birthday party to be held there the following day.
Sadler found a friend's methamphetamine pipe in her car and then said he'd have to search her. He put her in the patrol car and drove deeper into the parking lot behind some bushes, the lawsuit states.
Outside the vehicle, he pulled up her halter top and bra, exposing her breasts, and shined his flashlight on her chest, the lawsuit said. Having been told that Bowman wasn't wearing underwear, he then pulled out her waistband and shined the flashlight down the front and back of her pants, according to the lawsuit.
The incident ended, Bowman said, when he drove her back to her car and wished her a happy birthday.
“I was shaking,” Bowman recalled. “I didn't understand what his intent was.”
Sadler denied the allegations in court records.
Bowman filed a complaint with the sheriff's internal affairs investigators, where it became her word against his.
“How do I report a cop to a cop and expect anything other than what I got out of it? They thumbed their nose at me,” Bowman said.
