A decision aimed at protecting others

The woman drove and drove.

She thought she was headed home, but when she looked up at the street signs, she realized she was lost and far from her apartment.

"I was crying and crying," the woman says in Spanish. "I was afraid of crashing, but there were hardly any cars at that time of the night. I arrived at home, and I left my car on. I was still vomiting."

She was vomiting because as this woman alleges, an Anaheim police officer, Bradley Stewart Wagner, sexually assaulted her last November. In Tuesday's column the woman, a 40-year-old, undocumented immigrant from Mexico, gave her version of what happened in the early morning hours of Nov. 11.

I am referring to her only as Jane Doe so that her legal status is not jeopardized by her decision to speak publicly. She alleges that Wagner, while in uniform and on duty, pulled her over in her car and subsequently sexually assaulted her. Wagner's lawyer did not return my phone calls, but has said her client is falsely accused and will be exonerated.

Still crying when she arrived home on Nov. 11, Jane says she asked her cousin to park her car and immediately took a shower. Despite her first impulse not to file a police report, her son-in-law persuaded her otherwise. He made an argument that, she says, struck at her core.

"'You have to go because if you don't, he'll continue to harm others. What if, God forbid, your daughter comes and he does the same to her, or to some other girl,'" Jane says he told her.

Still, taking this step was the hardest thing for Jane to do. She feared she'd encounter the officer if she reported the crime at the Anaheim Police Department, so she and her son-in-law went to several other cities before finally calling the Anaheim police.

She provided police with the Super Lotto ticket where she says the officer wrote down his cell-phone number, as well as the vehicle identification number on the officer's patrol car, which she had written on a napkin. She says Wagner spoke some Spanish, and that she understands a little English.

An Anaheim Police Department spokesman, Sgt. Rick Martinez, says Wagner was immediately put on administrative leave. On Nov. 18, Wagner submitted his retirement papers and was arrested later that same day, Martinez says.

Orange County prosecutors have filed charges of sexual assault and false imprisonment against Wagner, who has pleaded not guilty.

Anaheim City Councilwoman Lorri Galloway says given the strong sentiment of fear among undocumented immigrants, it was courageous of Jane to file a police report.

"I believe that crimes like this have been happening for a long, long time, but people won't report them because they believe they won't get any support or help," says Galloway.

For 22 years, Galloway has served as executive director of the Eli Home for Abused Children. She says victims often feel they have too much to lose by coming forward, so she was particularly angered by comments made by Wagner's lawyer, Jennifer Keller, who publicly accused Jane of making a false claim to get legal residency and compensation.

"She's already been victimized. For her to be re-victimized by the legal system ... I can't even tell you how that eats at my core," Galloway says. Galloway praised the Anaheim Police Department for moving quickly on the investigation.

"This sends a strong message to law enforcement that this won't be tolerated," she says. "This was not a crime of passion or loss. This was a crime of abuse, of power, of control, hatred and bigotry."

Ultimately, the courts will decide whether Wagner is guilty, but the larger issue remains. What kind of society allows millions of people to harvest our food, clean our bathrooms and build parts for our cars, but remain undocumented? How long will we force these immigrants to live beneath the radar, making them easy prey for those who abuse their power?

Jane believes that her decision to go to the police was the right one. There may be other victims out there, she says, who remain silent because they're afraid of being deported.

"He's going to keep doing the same thing over and over again," says Jane. "It's not just."

Everything has changed now for her. She's withdrawn and recoils when men approach her. She's plagued by headaches and says she'll never forget what happened.

It was hope for a better life that brought her to Orange County, and hope that led her to take a chance on the little things like the Super Lotto. Instead of a ticket to her dreams, however, that Lotto ticket is now a grim reminder of her pain.

When I ask her if she had ever dreamed what she would do if she won the jackpot, she answers, "Why dream? Why dream about something that may never be?" But she pauses and reconsiders. If she won, she says, she would make sure her mother and her children were provided for, and would help others in need.

At work she always pitched in $1 or $2 with her fellow workers and took that chance on the lottery. She took a chance on Nov. 11 as well, believing that the judicial system wouldn't fail her.

Because despite everything, she still has faith.