'OFFICER BLOW JOB'

EPD Didn't Respond To Complaints About Magana.

Roger Magana, accused of raping or sexually abusing a dozen women
while a Eugene Police Department officer, was known on the street as
"Officer Blow Job," a woman victim alleged last week in court. Other
victims claim EPD did not respond to their complaints about Magana's
behavior.

One alleged victim, a 39-year-old recovered heroin addict and mother,
appeared to be the most frequent target of Magana. She cried as she
alleged how Magana molested her and forced her to give oral sex
numerous times by threatening to arrest her, kill her or have her
child taken away.

At one point, the woman pleaded with Magana to stop forcing sex from
her after he had touched her breasts and put his finger in her vagina,
she alleged. Magana had taken her in his patrol car to an area near
Chambers Street where school buses are parked.

"I was upset," she said. "I just said I couldn't take it anymore."
Magana responded angrily, she said, "he acted like he was just doing
me favors or something."

The woman alleged Magana put his police gun against her chest and
told her, "If you ever tell anyone, I'm going to fucking kill you."

Later, Magana threatened to tell drug dealers she was ratting on
them to police, the woman alleged. On the street such an action "can
be life threatening," she said.

The first time Magana picked her up off the street in his patrol
car, he drove her to a remote area of the Eugene Airport and
threatened to jail her for possession unless she gave him oral sex,
she alleged. "I was crying and panicked and shocked."

The next time he picked her up, Magana repeated the threat and drove
to a remote area near the Whiteaker railroad tracks. She says she
feared the "absolutely horrendous and physically painful" drug
withdrawal she would have in jail and felt she had no choice but to
perform oral sex.

Another time Magana threatened arrest again and took the woman to a
"disgusting" restroom in Monroe Park where junkies shot up and forced
her to get on her knees and again perform oral sex, she alleged.
Afterwards, "he walked out of the bathroom and I vomited."

The demands for oral sex on threat of arrest happened over and over
again, the woman alleged. "Every time it got worse and worse. There
was more aggression and more threats," she said. After she was excused
for the day, the woman left the courtroom and sobbed in the hallway.

On cross examination the next day, defense attorney Russell Barnett
asked if she was motivated by her civil lawsuit against the city.

"I don't think there's any amount of money that could ever make it
up," she said of what happened to her.

Another woman, a 28-year-old former heroin user and prostitute,
alleged Magana directed his trainee officer Juan Lara to drug search
her "in a very demeaning way."

At Magana's direction Lara touched her vaginal area and breasts and
pulled her pants down on a busy street corner at rush hour, the woman
alleged. The woman said she asked for a female officer to conduct the
search, but Magana threatened to jail her. The officers found no
drugs and let her go, she said. Officer Lara was convicted earlier
this year of sex abuse and sentenced to five years in prison.

Later, the same woman alleged Magana picked her up in his patrol car
in the Whiteaker neighborhood and said he would arrest her unless she
performed oral sex. Magana told her that no one would believe her if
she complained, saying, "you're a prostitute and a heroin addict and
I'm a police officer," the woman alleged.

Magana pulled over near a vacant lot and "took a handful of my hair
and forced my head into his lap," the woman alleged. She said, crying,
that she fought back yelling, pleading and elbowing and finally
struggled free and out the car door.

Magana hopped the curb in his patrol car after her and nearly hit
her, the woman alleged. She said she managed to escape into the night.
"I was running for my life. I was scratched up and bleeding from
blackberry bushes, nails from fences."

When Magana later saw her on the street, the woman alleges he
threatened, "if you tell anyone what happened, I will make your life a
living hell," she said. "I was scared for my life, so I moved to
Springfield."

On cross examination the woman denied she was motivated by a $2.25
million lawsuit she has filed against the city. But she said, "I think
Magana needs to pay for what he did to me and others."

Another alleged victim, a 43-year-old woman, said Magana responded
to a domestic dispute at her house four years ago. The woman alleged
Magana threatened her with arrest and made her perform oral sex on
her knees in the hallway. "I was very intimidated," she said. "I felt
like I had no choice."

Another woman, 26, alleged Magana followed her home and tried to hit
on her. She said Magana held her hand tight and asked for a kiss on
the cheek outside her home. Feeling like she had to kiss him, the
woman said she tried to kiss his cheek, but "he turned his face and
slopped his mouth on mine," she alleged. She said Magana left after
she told him her uncle worked for the county Sheriff's Department.

A 31-year-old woman alleged Magana also forced oral sex from her
numerous times by threatening to send her to jail or take her daughter
away. She said she grew fearful that the officer would kill her and at
one point she spat his semen out on a pair of sweatpants to keep as
evidence. Prosecutor Bob Lane alleged the semen DNA matches Magana.

The woman's 10-year-old daughter testified that she saw "officer
Roger" French kissing her mother while Magana was in "his officer
suit."

EPD FAILED TO STOP MAGANA

The trial, expected to last until mid July, continues to raise
questions about how Magana was allegedly able to sexually abuse and
rape so many women without the EPD stopping him.

The 39-year-old woman testified that she told Eugene Police Officer
Jerry Webber what Magana was doing, but the department did nothing.
"I hollered for help to the police department and he didn't do a damn
thing for me," the woman alleged angrily.

The lack of action by the EPD left her feeling "hopeless and
helpless," the woman said. "I didn't understand how he [Magana]
could do this and not get caught when he's supposed to be someone you
could trust."

The only apparent result of her complaint was more abuse from
Magana, the woman alleged. Magana came to her "infuriated" that
she had complained, demanded more oral sex, ripped off her pants,
"touched my genitals with his gun," and said, "If you tell anyone
anything about me, I'll blow you up from the inside out," she alleged.

Magana later threatened her until she would restore his reputation
by writing a glowing commendation letter, she alleged. "He was going
to hurt me, kill me, hurt my daughter, take my daughter away."

Officer Webber testified that he asked Officer Magana about the
woman's allegations, but Magana denied it. Webber said Magana told
him the woman had made the same allegations about him.

Webber said he asked the woman if she had accused him of abuse while
the officer drove her to jail. Webber said the woman denied she had
and also recanted her allegations against Magana.

Another woman screamed out to municipal court Judge Wayne Allen that
Magana had made her perform oral sex, Allen testified. But Allen and
his clerk did not report or pursue the incident.

A female police officer, Dallas Hall, testified that Magana once
called on her to arrest a naked "bitch" in a bathtub at a hotel. She
thought the incident "very strange" and "unprofessional" but she did
not report Magana to her superiors. The woman in the bathtub was one
of Magana's most frequent alleged victims.

The EPD might have saved a dozen women from sex abuse had it acted on
a sexual harassment complaint against Magana almost a decade ago. An
Hispanic woman testified that when she was 17 and a police cadet,
Magana hit on her and pressed his chest against her breasts and
pushed his crotch against her against her will. The woman said she
complained about Magana to Officer Jennifer Bills.

Officer Bills testified that she told Magana that his sexual
advances on to the woman were inappropriate because she was a minor
and he was married. Bills said Magana continued to flirt with the
cadet, but she said she did not file a written report on the problem
nor did she tell superiors. Bills is now in charge of investigating
officer misconduct for the EPD.

The cadet alleged Magana retaliated after her complaint by having
another cadet spray foam on her. She said she dropped out of the cadet
program and gave up her dream of becoming a police officer. "To become
a police officer it seemed like I had to deal with a lot, like
officers like Roger Magana."

The 28-year-old victim who struggled away rather than give Magana
oral sex said she asked the officer how a cop could expect to get away
with forcing sex. She said Magana replied, "Oh, you would be amazed
at what I can do, and I can get away with."