A Denver Police Department officer who previously has been suspended for paying a prostitute now has been disciplined for attempting to date a sexual assault victim he met while on duty.

Still, he remains employed at the department because of rules for how officers are disciplined. It’s a decision that has led critics and community activists to question decision-making within the city’s Department of Safety and to ask what kind of message is being sent to officers and the public they serve.

“Every time that Denver fails to appropriately discipline members of law enforcement, it sends a message to officers — and the community — that they are above the law,” said Mari Newman of the Kilmer, Lane and Newman firm, which has successfully sued the city multiple times over police officer and sheriff’s deputy excessive force cases.

Zachery Phillips, who has been a Denver officer since 2003, lost two vacation days after he started a relationship with the sexual assault victim, according to a copy of his disciplinary letter obtained by The Denver Post.

Phillips responded to a report of a sexual assault on July 2, 2016, where he contacted the victim and took information about the incident. He stayed in contact, exchanging text messages, talking on the telephone and seeing her in person at least twice, the letter said.

The woman did not accuse Phillips of sexual misconduct, but the relationship violated the department’s rules toward good order and police discipline, the letter said.

In September, Phillips avoided termination after he admitted to paying a prostitute and signed an agreement that said he wouldn’t be fired if he could avoid trouble for a year.

Phillips was not fired for this latest violation because of timing, said Jess Vigil, the Denver Department of Safety’s deputy director. Under the agreement in the prostitution case, Phillips only can be fired for infractions committed between Sept. 19, 2017, and Sept. 19, 2018, and the relationship with the sexual assault victim happened in 2016, Vigil said.

The police department’s internal affairs bureau did not know about the sexual assault victim until Feb. 1 when the woman lodged a complaint, Vigil said.

Phillips’ relationship with the prostitute was discovered in February 2017 when the police department’s vice narcotics team arrested a prostitute in an undercover operation at a Denver hotel.The prostitute agreed to meet with detectives to provide information on drug dealers, pimps and online escort sites, and she revealed her relationship with Phillips in that interview.

When Phillips was questioned by internal affairs investigators he said he paid the woman around $40 for a massage in November or December 2016 and admitted that she had spent the night in his bed. He denied she performed sexual acts for him, according to the Sept. 19, 2017, disciplinary letter.

Phillips and the prostitute dated for a brief period, the letter said.

At the time, Vigil determined that Phillips could be fired for the relationship because he solicited a prostitute and violated the department’s rules about prohibited associations.

Phillips was given a second chance, however, because he accepted responsibility and had an otherwise good work history at the department. In 2013, he received a Citizens Appreciate Police award, given to officers who go beyond the call of duty to serve the community, after he and another officer paid for a hotel room for a homeless woman who had been seen walking on Interstate 70.

Phillips signed the disciplinary agreement with the safety department accepting a 15-day suspension and promising to avoid further disciplinary issues for 12 months.

His latest disciplinary action comes nine months later.

The department’s critics question why the technicality of a timeline should provide a second chance for a troubled officer.

“We have a sexual assault victim who was in a vulnerable position and we have an officer who is in authority,” said Lisa Calderon, a community activist involved in law enforcement issues. “It shouldn’t make a difference because of a timeline. It should be looked at in totality.”

This isn’t the first time an officer has escaped proper punishment on a technicality, Newman said.

She noted that former Denver Sheriff Department Deputy Thanarat Phuvapaisalkij avoided discipline in the death of jail inmate Michael Marshall after safety officials determined he had left the department. But Phuvapaisalkj hadn’t gone far — he had enrolled in the police academy, Newman said.

“This is not some kind of isolated incident of Denver using a technicality to excuse an officer,” she said.

Roshan Bliss of the Denver Justice Project said the department should not tolerate officers who cannot separate their duties from their personal lives.

“This shows a disturbing tolerance the Denver Police Department is willing to exercise for officers who have blurry boundaries between themselves and the people they are supposed to be protecting.”

Updated June 22, 2018 at 15:18 p.m. Information in this post has been updated to better reflect the relationship between a Denver police officer and a woman he pursued for a relationship. Denver Police Department Officer Zachery Phillips pursued a relationship with a sexual assault victim whose 911 call he answered. The nature of the relationship was unclear in a disciplinary letter that was the basis of the article.