Sexual coercion victim sues ex-Dunbar officer [The Charleston Gazette, W.Va.]

Sept. 01--CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The woman a Dunbar police officer coerced into having sex with him, resulting in his conviction on federal charges, filed a lawsuit against him in Kanawha Circuit Court on Tuesday.

In December, Raymond O. "Dell" Conley, 40, pleaded guilty to violating Lindsay Runnion's civil rights by searching her without probable cause, then using the small amount of marijuana he found to persuade her to have sex with him.

Runnion's lawsuit quotes at length from a stipulation of facts that Conley agreed to as part of his prosecution, noting that she was the victim of his crime.

On July 17, 2009, Conley groped her breasts and pelvic area during the search, and placed her in handcuffs, according to his plea deal. He told her she would not be charged if she agreed to have sex with him.

He then drove her to a remote part of Dunbar, where they had sexual intercourse.

The suit, filed by Charleston lawyers Bill and Jesse Forbes, also names the Dunbar Police Department as a defendant, claiming that it was negligent in its supervision of Conley, who was a sergeant before he resigned from the department.

In April, U.S. District Judge Thomas E. Johnston sentenced Conley to a year in prison, the maximum possible sentence. At Conley's sentencing, prosecutors indicated that, after Conley pleaded guilty, other women came forward with allegations that he had harassed them.

At that hearing, Conley maintained that what happened with Runnion was an isolated incident, a contention rejected by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sam Marsh.

The incident with Runnion "was a culmination of a pattern of behavior where [Conley] preyed upon young women" who were particularly vulnerable, Marsh said at the time. Conley repeatedly used thinly veiled suggestions to convey to women that they had the option of getting out of trouble in exchange for sexual favors, he said.

The judge commented that he was surprised that Conley's actions did not constitute a felony.

"This [was] not a single, isolated episode," Johnston said. "The public needs to be able to trust the police."

Conley is serving his sentence at a federal facility in Elkton, Ohio. He is scheduled to be released in May 2011, according to the Bureau of Prisons website.

In July, another woman sued Conley, alleging that Conley repeatedly made unwelcome sexual advances to her at her Dunbar home. She also accused other officers of helping Conley pressure her landlord to evict her after she rebuffed Conley's advances.

That suit, also filed by Forbes and Forbes, is still pending.

Reach Andrew Clevenger at [email protected] or 304-348-1723.

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