Report: Jail-cell sex show coerced

A Philadelphia police officer forced two women to put on a sex show in a jail cell, ordering them to expose their breasts, kiss and touch each other until they broke down in tears, an internal investigation has found.

Internal Affairs also found that police engaged in a coverup and says the women - who were not charged with any crime - should never have been locked up at all.

The report identifies Police Officer Norberto Cappas as the officer who told the women to perform "indecent sexual acts" as a price of release.

It also faults four other officers involved in the detention and jailing of the women, singling out one for being "evasive" and suffering from a suspicious "memory loss."

Although the investigation is complete, the department won't say what discipline has been imposed. Capt. Benjamin Naish, a spokesman for Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson, said the officers have the right to contest the findings.

The incident is unusual not only for its revelation about abusive conduct inside the 26th Police District, but for the breakdown in how Internal Affairs and city prosecutors investigated the case.

Though the episode took place in 2003, the investigation languished for years.

One of the women filed a complaint within hours of the 2003 incident, but the case sat in limbo until The Inquirer raised questions about it for an article published last August. The Internal Affairs report was finally finished in December and The Inquirer recently obtained it.

That victim, Erica Hejnar, now 27, said that she had almost given up hope that anyone would be punished for what happened to her.

"That's amazing," Hejnar said of the department's findings. "I can't believe it. I didn't think anything was going to happen to them because it was taking so long."

Hejnar, paid $17,500 by the city last year to settle her civil suit over the abuse, talked openly about the incident. The name of the other woman is being withheld by The Inquirer, which does not identify victims of sex crimes without their permission.

Cappas did not respond yesterday to messages left on his cell phone seeking comment. According to the 20-page Internal Affairs Division report, he told the department he had done nothing wrong - that "nothing unusual happened inside the 26th District cell room."

While the case against Cappas, if upheld, could cost him his badge, he apparently won't be charged with a crime. Yesterday, the District Attorney's office said it did not have enough evidence to prosecute.

Prosecutors formally informed the department last summer that they did not intend to arrest Cappas - a notification that cleared the way for Internal Affairs to talk to the officer and wrap up its inquiry.

The Internal Affairs investigation found that the detention of Hejnar and the other woman was marked by police mistakes and abuses from beginning to end.

The two women were picked up by a drug squad in a street sweep at about 7 p.m. on Sept. 3, 2003.

They were stopped on the street and searched. No drugs were found. Nonetheless, they were taken into the 26th Police District headquarters, Girard and Montgomery Avenues, where they were locked up and searched for a second time.

The IAD report faulted Sgt. Oscar Martinez, the head of the drug squad, as well as one of his officers, Todd Oandasan.

It said Martinez should have ordered them released on the spot when the first search found no drugs.

Oandasan was the surveillance officer in the narcotics detail. Internal Affairs faulted him for signaling for the squad to stop Hejnar and her friend even though he did not see them buy drugs, only talk with suspected drug dealers.

Efforts to reach Martinez and Oandasan were not successful yesterday.

Once the women were behind bars in the 26th District, the report says, Cappas began his voyeuristic demands.

At first, the officer asked them if they had ever had sex with each other.

Then, he ordered them to kiss and touch each other's breasts. The women did this, but they balked and wept as the officer kept escalating his demands, telling them to perform oral sex on each other.

At one point, the officer jangled the keys to the cell, saying, "If you want to go home, you will do as I say," according to the Internal Affairs report.

Finally, the officer relented, unlocking the cell door. "If you want to go home, get the hell out of here now," he said.

No charges were ever brought against them. Shortly after they made it outside, Hejnar's friend discovered that $20 was missing from her purse. Internal Affairs concluded that a police officer had stolen the money but it could not determine which one.

Of the sex show, the report found, IAD's investigation left "little doubt this incident did occur inside the 26th District cell room."

Besides the testimony of the two victims, the report noted, an officer in the district, Annamae Law, told Internal Affairs that Cappas had been laughing and regaling other officers about the episode later that night.

Law told investigators that she exploded in anger at Cappas and cursed him.

"Why would you allow something like that to happen in this house?" she said, according to Internal Affairs. "I told him this is the captain's house, not his house."

Law has declined to comment.

Investigators also tracked down a man who was locked up in a nearby cell that night. The man, James Carey, was picked up in the same drug sweep that netted the two women.

While his view was blocked, Carey "heard the girls crying," and heard sexual comments directed at them, including a demand they expose their genitals, the report said.

Carey was arrested on a charge of dealing drugs that night, but the case was dismissed. When he spoke with Internal Affairs, he was in state prison on a separate drug-dealing conviction.

The women did not identify Cappas in a photo spread; indeed, Hejnar selected an officer who was off duty that night.

But Internal Affairs noted that the women said their abuser was the officer who took down their names and addresses while they were behind bars. Cappas's own admission, plus police paperwork, showed that he was that officer, the report said.

In his interview with investigators, Cappas said he had released the women promptly.

He said dealing with them was difficult "because they kept hollering and screaming about why they were brought into the district," the report said.

The report said Cappas had made false statements to investigators - one of the most serious internal charges that police officers can face, since it damages their credibility in future court appearances.

Internal Affairs also faulted two officers who were working inside district headquarters that night.

It recommended action against Sgt. Shawn Gushue, saying he did nothing even though he heard Law's outburst. Nor did Gushue intervene, the report said, when Cappas told him he had found the missing $20. Gushue could not be reached for comment.

The report was even more critical of another officer at headquarters that night, Doreen Napper, the turnkey who oversaw the lockup.

It said Napper should never have let Cappas enter the cellblock alone.

Internal Affairs also found that Napper made false statements to investigators. She and Cappas were the only ones accused of participating in a coverup.

The report said that Napper could not identify the members of the squad who brought in the two women, though she had worked with them for seven years.

It also said Napper could not positively identify Cappas as the officer who escorted the women from the station, though she walked right behind him when he let them go.

Law told investigators that Napper heard her outburst and shook her head in disgust about the behavior: "They wanted me to go back there," Law quoted her as saying.

Napper told investigators she never said that. Reached by phone yesterday, she declined to comment.

While Internal Affairs investigators initially conducted a quick flurry of interviews, the case soon went into a deep freeze.

Internal Affairs asked prosecutors in October 2003 whether they intended to prosecute any one in the incident.

Under police policy, Internal Affairs won't complete its investigation until the question of criminal charges is settled. Police want to make sure their inquiry does not undermine any future prosecution.

The District Attorney's office did not respond until July of last year, after The Inquirer asked about the status of the case.

Prosecutors decided not to file criminal charges in part because the women couldn't pick out their abuser from photo arrays.

Cathie Abookire, spokeswoman for District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham, said the evidence is still too sketchy to justify a criminal charge. One weakness: While Carey, the other prisoner, heard what was happening, he couldn't see the culprit. "We declined initially to prosecute due to insufficient evidence, because nobody could identify who told them to do that," she said. "And we still have insufficient evident to proceed."

As for the delay, prosecutors and police blame each other. Police say they were waiting on the DA's office. Prosecutors said the department could have gone forward with its own discipline anyway.

Ellen Green-Ceisler, an expert on police discipline, said the case never should have dragged on for more than three years. The delay, she said, was unfair to the innocent and guilty alike. "This is a shocking story: the behavior of the accused officers, the failure of the investigatory system," said Green-Ceisler, who once headed a city office that monitored police discipline. "It's just a failure on so many different levels."

To read the Internal Affairs report on the allegations of sexual abuse inside the 26th Police District headquarters, visit

http://go.philly.com/sexshowEndText