HOUSTON -- A veteran Houston police officer has been charged with two counts of record-tampering after the district attorney's office said he lied about what happened during a prostitution sting.
On Oct. 15, 2009, Officer Samuel Roccaforte, 57, responded to an ad the woman had placed on Backpage.com for "Just Call Kelly," according to an arrest affidavit. When Roccaforte arrived, she escorted him into the bedroom and asked him to place his "donation" on the table, the affidavit said.
When he began asking questions about sex in exchange for money, the woman told investigators that she believed Roccaforte was a police officer and told him that she didn’t provide that type of service.
The woman said Roccaforte persisted in trying to get her to agree to have sex for money, before he finally identified himself as a police officer and arrested her for prostitution, according to the affidavit.
Roccaforte filed a report claiming that the woman had agreed to have sex with him in exchange for $200, the affidavit said.
The woman came forward on Feb. 4 with an audio recording of her arrest, which revealed that she never consented to having sex with the officer, the affidavit said. According to the audio transcript, when she protested her arrest and said she had not done anything wrong, Roccaforte said:
"There's no audio, there's no video. It's gonna to be my word against yours and who do you think they're going to believe?"
Investigators said Roccaforte, who has been with the Houston Police Department for 28 years, walked out of an interview after learning about the tape.
He has been placed on administrative leave with pay, pending the outcome of an investigation.
"What this officer did is wrong," said the woman’s attorney, Paul Doyle. "The vice division is totally out of control."
