Jurors on Tuesday sentenced a second-year Houston Police Department officer to six years in prison for raping a prostitute while on duty last year.

Demetrie Trevail Dixon, 26, will have to serve at least half of his sentence before becoming eligible for parole. He was sentenced to six years for two counts of sexual assault. The sentences will run at the same time.

Two convicted prostitutes told investigators that Dixon detained them twice on different occasions and forced them to perform oral sex before raping them and then letting them go, investigators said.

The north Houston division patrol officer was charged last year with four felony counts of sexual assault and two misdemeanor counts of official oppression.

Internal affairs investigators said Dixon stalked several women while on duty then took them to a secluded area to strip-search them.

Prosecutors said he raped two of the women twice over a three-month period.

After more than a week of trial and about two hours of deliberating, Dixon was sentenced for raping one of the women twice.

He still faces allegations that he raped another woman twice, prosecutors said.

Other charges

He also faces two misdemeanor charges stemming from allegations by two women, one an undercover HPD officer involved in the internal investigation, who said Dixon took them behind a warehouse and forced them to submit to searches by threatening them with jail.

Prosecutor Matthew Peneguy asked jurors in closing arguments to sentence Dixon to the maximum, 20 years behind bars, for "using the badge to coerce" women in to sex.

Defense attorney Bill Stradley wanted jurors to consider 10 years of probation.

"We don't need to warehouse this guy, he needs help," Stradley said.

Stradley noted that Dixon went to an ATM and paid one of the women after sex.

Peneguy called the payment "hush money," not an agreement.

State District Judge Susan Brown ordered Dixon taken in to custody to begin serving his sentence immediately Tuesday. He had been free on $122,000 bail.

Dixon was sworn in as an HPD officer in January 2009. He was arrested June 4 and terminated after an internal investigation Jan. 7.

brian.rogers@chron.com