On September 28 , attorney Michael David filed notice of a claim against the New York Police Department, the City of New York, and two unnamed police officers, referred to as John and Jim Doe. These plainclothes cops, alleged the claim, “brutally sexually assaulted and raped” his 18-year-old female client. David told me that within a day, he needed to amend the claim: The officers had been identified by police in the press as Brooklyn South narcotics detectives Richard Hall and Edward Martins. “What was strange,” said David, “was that within only two or three hours of me filing, there was a story leaked to the New York Post saying that the detectives were claiming that the sex they had with my client in custody was consensual. They hadn’t even been named yet.” The attorney told me that he believes “the police were trying to get ahead of the story.” At a time of elevated public awareness about police violence and sexual assault, these detectives’ apparent defensive tack raises troubling questions about the way cops approach these national plagues. Let us be clear: Someone in police custody cannot give consent, in any meaningful sense of the word, to the officer holding them.

Someone in police custody cannot give consent, in any meaningful sense of the word, to the officer holding them.

Claiming to have received consent, whether it is based in any truth or not, betrays a policing culture that refuses to recognize its own outsized power over those it alleges to protect and serve. The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office is currently investigating the case to determine whether the claim of consent is credible under law, but the fact that consent seems to be on offer as a defense at all speaks to how the police themselves view rape — a dynamic that needs immediate redress. The accusations against Hall and Martins detail brutal rape in no uncertain terms. The young woman, who goes by the name “Anna Chambers” on social media but is withholding her legal name, says that on September 15, she and two male friends were driving near Brighton Beach. They were pulled over by the undercover detectives for being in a park after closing time, and their car was searched. The police found drugs in a bag next to Chambers; one friend was also found with pills on his person. The cops handcuffed only Chambers and drove her away in an unmarked van. The teen alleges that the police drove to a nearby Chipotle parking lot and then, while she remained handcuffed, forced her to perform oral sex on them. One officer, she said, then raped her before leaving her on a street corner near the 60th Precinct. According to her attorney, she went to a hospital that night and was given a rape kit. Law enforcement sources told the New York Post that DNA found on Chambers matched the two officers, a fact confirmed by the teen’s attorney. “I’m so hurt by this situation,” Chambers told me via Twitter direct message, before referring me to her lawyer. David said, “She’s devastated, She doesn’t leave home, she’s extremely depressed, and has been victimized again by these cops saying it was consensual.” He added, “This was a kidnapping, and this was rape.” An NYPD spokesperson said on Wednesday that both officers have been suspended and that the Internal Affairs Bureau is working with the district attorney in the ongoing investigation. The New York Post reported Wednesday evening that a grand jury has been convened to hear evidence against the two officers. The detectives “should have been arrested that night,” said David. Chambers’s attorney was keen to stress that his client was a petite teenager. “She looks about 15 years old,” the lawyer told me. Chambers’s social media accounts show her partying and posing for the camera — not unusual for a teen. The New York Post opted to illustrate some of its coverage of the case with pictures of her pouting in a tiny bikini. The victim’s diminutive stature and young appearance may be important in the legal case — perhaps speaking to the cops’ attitudes and assumptions — but the possible condition of consent here should not be predicated on her size, appearance, or attitude. Likewise, being handcuffed throughout the ordeal, as she claims, could prove crucial in a criminal trial. But even had she been released from the cuffs at some point, the condition of police detention is its own restraint — such is the power imbalance and the impossibility of consent.

“The idea that you can’t give knowing and voluntary consent to answering questions, but you could to sex would be risible if it weren’t so horrifically nauseating.”