Ex-Oklahoma cop will be arraigned for sexually assaulting women during traffic stops

An Oklahoma judge on Thursday allowed a case to proceed against a former Oklahoma Highway Patrol officer accused of pulling over three women at separate traffic stops and sexually assaulting them, a legal official said.

Eric Roberts, 43, is set to be arraigned on Tuesday at a court in Sapulpa, southwest of Tulsa, on 11 criminal counts including sexual battery, indecent exposure, rape by instrumentation and second degree rape, the official said.

During a hearing on Thursday, District Judge Douglas Golden dismissed a defense motion to quash the charges due to procedural matters.

Roberts has previously pleaded not guilty to all the charges and denied the accusations.

The case comes weeks after a former Oklahoma City officer convicted of raping four women and sexually assaulting several others while on duty was sentenced to 263 consecutive years in prison, the maximum allowable sentence.

Roberts was suspended in July 2014 after a woman filed a federal lawsuit claiming the patrolman raped her during a traffic stop. Two more women later made similar allegations.

Roberts resigned from the Oklahoma Highway Patrol in September 2014.

The federal lawsuit claimed Roberts pulled the woman over and began asking her a series of sexual questions. He later drove her to a remote location while forcing her to watch a pornographic video on a cell phone.

He then raped her, discarded a condom and used bottled water purchased along the way to clean himself, the suit said.

The next day, the woman reported the incident to Oklahoma Highway Patrol, which investigated. They went to the scene of the reported assault and a condom was recovered, the suit said.

According to the OHP, investigators discovered Roberts had turned his dashboard camera off during six traffic stops, including the one listed in the federal lawsuit.

(Reporting by Heide Brandes and Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Sandra Maler)