On January 31, former El Paso police officer William Ollie Alexander was convicted of raping a woman after responding to her domestic dispute call in 2018. Originally facing 20 years in prison, a jury sentenced Alexander to 10 years probation and required him to register as a sex offender for life.
Alexander took advantage of the vulnerable state of the woman he was supposed to protect and serve, and instead violated her in the most heinous way. His actions are a clear example of the abuse of power that exists within the police force and the justice system’s failure to hold officers accountable for their crimes.
Alexander’s lenient sentence is a slap in the face to the victim and a clear indication of how little value the system places on the safety and well-being of the people it is supposed to serve.
Later that night, Alexander, using a fake phone number and providing a false name, deceived the woman into thinking he was someone else. He then fabricated a story about his child being in the hospital to end his shift early, so he could sneakily pay the unsuspecting woman a visit.
Alexander drove the woman to a secluded, poorly lit area near Mesa Street and proceeded to rape her in his car.
When the charges were first brought against him, Alexander quickly resigned from the force and faced a minimum of 20 years in prison. His father, in an attempt to mitigate the consequences for his son, begged for leniency in court, claiming that his son had simply “made a mistake.”
Defense lawyers Omar Carmona and Dolph Quijano asked for a sentence with no jail time stating, “any sentence you give Mr. Alexander could result in a death sentence […] He will go to the penitentiary as a former police officer. He is going to be there with gang members […] any prison sentence is a death sentence.”
Alexander’s defense argument that he would become the victim in prison was heard by the jury, handing out a weak sentencing with little regard for Alexander’s rape victim.
