A now-retired Chicago Police officer was ordered held on $100,000 bail Thursday after he was charged with sexually abusing a woman in a South Side police station while on duty in 2016.
Michael Clifton, 58, was charged with criminal sexual abuse and official misconduct after an investigation by CPD internal affairs found he sexually abused a 37-year-old woman inside the department’s Calumet District station on Sept. 20, 2016, according to police and prosecutors.
Clifton retired from the department in January 2017, according to police. His arrest report showed he lives in the Longwood Manor neighborhood and was taken into custody Wednesday in south suburban Lansing.
At his bond hearing Thursday before Judge David Navarro, prosecutors said Clifton abused the woman when she came in to file a complaint against another woman who had battered her at a nightclub in Englewood.
Prosecutors said Clinton became “flirtatious” after the victim mentioned she was bisexual and had a girlfriend, according to prosecutors.
“Defendant then asked Victim to enter his office alone,” prosecutors said. “Defendant closed the door and told Victim that she, ‘turned him on.’ Defendant then grabbed Victim by the arm, pulled her out of her chair and pinned her against the wall with his body.”
Clifton then groped her pelvic area over her clothing and tried to reach into her pants while making sexual comments about her genitals and kissing her neck, prosecutors said.
Another officer knocked on the door and Clifton moved away. The woman, who was accompanied by the father of her children, then drove to the Englewood police station to file a complaint against Clifton, according to prosecutors.
Swab samples taken from the woman’s neck and analyzed by Illinois State Police also provided DNA evidence against Clifton, prosecutors said.
Clifton’s attorney said he served for 31 years with the department before retiring and had no criminal history. She added his mother and two grown children lived in the area. Clifton also coached baseball for many years, including several years for the Jackie Robinson West team.
Last week, another Chicago Police officer was charged with sexually assaulting a male suspect as he was being detained at an Englewood hospital.
Carlyle Calhoun’s bail was set at $200,000 after he allegedly sucked the man’s toes, grabbed his penis and took a photo of the victim as he tried to use a portable urinal. Once the two were in a bathroom, Calhoun forcibly performed a sex act on the man, prosecutors said.
Calhoun’s police powers were stripped and the police department started the process to place him on no-pay status, according to Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
