Syracuse, N.Y. — When police officer Chester Thompson was arrested for having sex with women on the job, his bosses in the Syracuse Police Department couldn’t have been surprised.

A year before, in 2014, a woman said Thompson entered her West Side apartment unannounced and offered to clear her criminal record in exchange for oral sex.

“The officer had a very scary and demanding demeanor and I was afraid and intimidated by him, so I began to give him oral sex,” the woman said later in a sworn statement. “After about a minute I stopped, but he directed me to continue.”

The woman’s mother reported the episode to police. But Capt. Thomas Galvin, the head of the department’s internal affairs office, never tried to talk directly to the accuser.

Still, he found the complaint unproven. Police took no action.

It wasn’t the first time Thompson had avoided punishment after a sexual misconduct accusation. And Galvin knew it.

In 2006, a woman told police Thompson had frightened her into oral sex. Galvin found that one “unsubstantiated,” too. A year before that, a City Hall staffer complained that Thompson had walked into her house and demanded a hug.

At least 10 women have come forward to allege Thompson raped or coerced sex from them, or committed other misconduct, over 18 years. Not all made complaints to police, but five say they did.

A Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard investigation reveals allegations of predatory behavior by a bad cop and weak oversight by his bosses.

Interviews with accusers and a review of hundreds of pages of documents uncover a pattern to the claims: Women in trouble — fearing criminal charges, under emotional distress, abusing drugs or needing a place to stay — were coerced or intimidated into sex.

Through it all, the police leadership kept looking the other way, despite the string of similar complaints. Thompson was never disciplined, his personnel file shows.

“It’s just horrifying that he was able to get away with this for so long and so many women were involved,” one woman, Cheryle Bassett, told Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard. “The damage he caused is going to be with us a lifetime. Nothing anybody can do can fix that.”

The allegations of predatory behavior made to police include:

In late 2001 or 2002, a tenant of Thompson’s North Side rental property accused him of demanding repeated sex in exchange for back rent. The woman’s ex-boyfriend said in a sworn statement that he complained to the police department, which never recorded his complaint.

In 2006, a woman accused Thompson of ordering her to perform oral sex on him in his police car. She said she felt threatened that he would arrest her if she didn’t comply.

In 2014, the mother of the West Side woman reported her daughter’s accusation that Thompson had promised to clear her criminal record if she performed oral sex on him.

Thompson lost his job in 2015 when yet another woman — the third acknowledged by the department — accused him of on-duty sex.

This time, a grand jury charged him with misconduct. Facing a firing, he retired. He collects a $37,000-a-year state pension.

Thompson eventually pleaded guilty to having on-duty sex with that woman and a fourth woman who came forward later. Prosecutors said they didn’t have proof of a rape. There’s no law protecting someone who feels intimidated into sex by a badge and gun, they said. Instead, Thompson pleaded guilty to official misconduct.

Now, the woman whose complaint led to Thompson’s conviction is suing him and the city of Syracuse for $7 million in federal court.

Maleatra Montanez’s lawsuit will put Thompson’s conduct and the police department’s handling of it under a microscope.

Many of the women in her corner have also banded together against the police department, accusing SPD of turning a blind eye to Thompson’s sexual assaults and finding excuses to discount their stories.

Only Montanez could benefit financially from the lawsuit. Six others — whose alleged experiences happened too long ago to sue — cooperated with her lawyer in the suit. Another three have filed official complaints with police.

A jury will decide if Thompson’s bosses violated Montanez’s constitutional rights by failing to act against Thompson.

Already, U.S. District Judge Brenda Sannes criticized the department — and Galvin in particular — for making no attempt to contact the woman whose mother reported Thompson.

The lawsuit could put city taxpayers on the hook for Thompson’s conduct. A jury trial is scheduled for Sept. 23 in Syracuse.

City Hall issued a statement noting Thompson’s allegations happened under previous mayors and declining further comment, citing the active lawsuit.

When asked directly by a reporter, Mayor Ben Walsh referred back to the statement. “I think that about covers it,” he said.

Police Chief Kenton Buckner also declined comment.

“It would not be wise for me to comment on something ongoing,” the chief wrote Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard via email. “As you well know, our agency has a well documented practice of not commenting on active legal or investigative processes. We will tell our side of the story at the appropriate time and venue.”

‘Less than truthful’ from the start

Thompson came to the department in 1997 after a stretch as a Marine Corps pilot. He stayed in the Air National Guard, retiring after 29 years of military service in 2016.

Thompson received consistently positive evaluations as a patrolman. His second wife was also a city police officer, though they divorced after Thompson’s arrest in 2015.

During his 18-year career, Thompson won commendations for collaring a murder suspect, taking guns and drugs off the street, and even tracking down a bike rack stolen from a city library.

Chester Thompson was with the Syracuse police department for 18 years. (File photo)

Thompson, 51, remains in the Syracuse area. He declined comment in a phone conversation with Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard.

“I’ve been instructed not to say anything to the media and not to talk to anyone,” he said.

But in a sworn deposition, Thompson has described women becoming so infatuated with him that they aggressively pursued sex on the spot. He denies forcing any of the women to have sex.

The earliest internal investigation into Thompson’s conduct concluded with a scathing report decrying “a pattern of less than truthful behavior.”

And that investigation had nothing to do with sex on the job.

The department punished Thompson in 2002 for sneaking his first wife onto his city-sponsored health insurance policy, the investigation found.

Thompson was suspended for six days. It was the harshest punishment Thompson would face before his departure 13 years later.

“… (F)uture acts in violation of the Rules & Regulations would bring discredit upon yourself and this Department and would be dealt with more severely,” then-Police Chief Dennis DuVal vowed at the time.

Three years later, that promise was put to the test.

In 2005, a former City Hall employee accused Thompson of creepy behavior after they left Coleman’s Irish Pub.

At the woman’s house, Thompson followed the woman onto her porch. And when she opened the door, he let himself in, she told police.

The woman said “goodbye so Officer Thompson would leave and Officer Thompson said he needed a hug first,” according to the report. “She gave him a hug so he would leave and he left.”

Thompson denied entering the woman’s house or requesting a hug.

There’s no evidence in Thompson’s personnel file that Syracuse police followed up with the woman. Instead, they told Thompson to stay away from her.

Sex in a patrol car

A year later, Thompson faced a much more serious accusation.

In 2006, a drug-addicted prostitute told police that Thompson, patrolling the North Side, ordered her into the backseat of his patrol car. (Syracuse.com and The Post-Standard do not name alleged victims of sex abuse without their permission.)

As Thompson drove, he asked her if she would do something in exchange for money.

“… (S)he agreed to have sex with Officer Thompson as she was afraid of being arrested if she did not,” according to her official complaint.

A mug shot of Chester Thompson in 2015.

Thompson stopped in a secluded area near the baseball stadium and opened the back door of the police car, the woman told police. The woman said she remained seated during the sex act.

Afterward, the woman said, Thompson mentioned seeing her again. As he drove her back to her original location, Thompson passed a $20 bill through the car’s seat barrier, she told police.

A few weeks later, Thompson approached her again in his patrol car, she said. They set up another meeting, but she never showed up.

Thompson told internal affairs the sexual encounter never happened.

The woman complained to police two or three months later when she was arrested on a robbery charge and wanted leniency, the internal file noted.

Galvin acknowledged later that he found the woman’s account “plausible.” He also questioned Thompson’s denial, saying he appeared “very nervous” and “extremely agitated.”

Something else bothered Galvin. Thompson asked repeatedly if anyone else had complained about him, Galvin wrote in his report.

“Why would you ask that?” Galvin explained later in his sworn interview. “It doesn’t make sense. If you’re innocent, why would you ask if there’s other complaints with me?”

In the report, Galvin concluded that Thompson had a “questionable relationship with prostitutes” and suggested to his bosses that Thompson be monitored while on the after-hours shift. Thompson said later he knew of no such monitoring.

Galvin also found fault with Thompson’s explanation for calling the prostitute’s adult daughter, who was also a prostitute.

During questioning by Galvin, Thompson admitted that he called the daughter “on a personal note … three or four times” and that he shouldn’t have because “he was married.” Later in a memo, Thompson said that the daughter had, in fact, asked him to call her for “questions of a police nature.”

Galvin was no stranger to investigating cops. The 46-year officer ran the department’s internal affairs division for 25 years, spanning nine police chiefs and Thompson’s entire career.

Yet despite his misgivings, Galvin recommended that the woman’s allegation be ruled “unsubstantiated.”

In the end, Thompson was reprimanded for transporting a prostitute in a police vehicle without permission. Then-Chief Gary Miguel’s letter read the way DuVal’s did four years earlier.

Any further violations “would be dealt with more severely,” the chief warned. Thompson’s duties did not change, the judge in the lawsuit noted.

A lax investigation

Fast-forward eight years.

In 2014, Thompson was patrolling the West Side when he was sent to help corral a stray pit bull. He encountered a 35-year-old woman who appeared intoxicated.

Thompson’s partner that day, Officer Thomas Nicolini, told Galvin that Thompson followed the woman inside her apartment. Thompson stayed 10 to 15 minutes and returned “with no more information” about the loose dog, Nicolini said.

That woman later told her mother that Thompson had followed her into her apartment uninvited and promised a favor in exchange for oral sex.

According to the mother’s complaint to police, the daughter “told the officer that she didn’t want any trouble because she already had problems with the police. The officer told her that he would take care of any police problems in exchange for oral sex, which [she] then gave him.”

Again, Galvin investigated Thompson. He recalled the prostitute’s complaint eight years earlier, he said.

But he never tried to directly contact the woman.

Galvin wrote in his report that the woman “refused to meet” and “was not available.” She had “retracted her accusations” and “said it did not happen,” he added.

But that’s not what really happened, Judge Sannes ruled this year.

In fact, Galvin only tried to reach the woman through her mother. In sworn testimony, the mother said that her daughter had become upset at learning a complaint had been made.

The daughter told her mother “she did not want to be involved in any police investigation and if they talked to her she would say it didn’t happen,” the mother said.

Later, the daughter said in a sworn statement for the lawsuit that Thompson had abused her.

She said Thompson came into her apartment uninvited. She described him as “very scary.” She said she “jokingly asked the officer if he could help me out with some traffic tickets. In response, the officer walked over to the couch in which I was seated, unzipped his pants … and told me to give him oral sex.”

If police had asked, she said later, she would’ve talked to them.

Galvin admitted in his deposition that he couldn’t conduct a “proper” investigation without speaking to the daughter. And the prior 2006 complaint by the prostitute concerned him.

“She (the daughter) was a vulnerable person, in my perspective, and it would have been easy to take advantage of that, as it would have been with (the) prostitute” in 2006, Galvin said in a deposition.

But, impressed by Thompson’s composed denials, Galvin recommended the allegation be termed “unsubstantiated.” Again, the police chief — this time Frank Fowler — agreed.

The final straw

Less than a year later, Thompson was out of a job.

In February 2015, Maleatra Montanez, then 40, accused Thompson of intimidating her into sex.

Thompson had responded on Valentine’s Day to the apartment Montanez shared with her 9-week-old son. Montanez was asking for help finding her teenage daughter.

While there, Thompson had exposed himself and ordered her to perform oral sex and have intercourse, Montanez charged.

Maleatra Montanez with her son Ervin Herring, age 4, in her home, March 7, 2019.Michael Greenlar | mgreenlar@syr

“I was terrified for my safety and for the safety of my newborn son,” Montanez said in a sworn statement.

“… I did not try to fight Officer Thompson, but I again told him that we don’t have to do this,” Montanez said.

Montanez said she went to Crouse Hospital a day later, after telling someone at church what had happened.

Thompson’s account contains many of the same details, but casts Montanez – a postpartum mother – as the sexual aggressor. He said he was leaving the apartment when Montanez grabbed him.

Thompson said he never had intercourse with Montanez. He accused her of trying to physically force him into sex.

In sworn testimony, Thompson has admitted to having sexual contact with four of the accusers, including Montanez. He said all the encounters were consensual. He denied the other accusations.

Another reported episode?

In late 1999 or 2000, Cheryle Bassett began renting an apartment from Thompson on the city’s North Side. He’d pulled her over for a traffic ticket and offered to rent her the space he’d recently vacated, she said in a sworn affidavit.

But Bassett fell behind on rent. Thompson offered to forgive the rent in exchange for sex, she said. Thompson admitted in his deposition to having sex with Bassett, but denied it revolved around back rent.

After Bassett was arrested for a misdemeanor, she revealed her contact with Thompson to officers in a bid to avoid charges, she said.

That angered Thompson, who demanded the back rent, she said in her affidavit. When she couldn’t pay, he demanded sex, she said. When she said no, he began to force himself onto her, she said.

“Over the next several months, Chester Thompson showed up at the First North Street address at various hours of the day and night, mostly unannounced and often in uniform, and raped me,” Bassett said in a sworn statement. “He ordered me to perform various sexual acts with him, even as I stated that I did not want to do so. I was afraid that if I persisted in my refusal, my son and I would be evicted.”

Bassett’s then-boyfriend has said in a sworn statement that he reported Thompson’s behavior to police but was told nothing could be done unless the boyfriend had direct proof. The ex-boyfriend did not respond to phone calls for comment.

There’s no evidence police ever investigated.

It’ll be up to the jury to decide if Syracuse police knew of – and ignored – Bassett’s allegations in 2002, the judge indicated.

City: unethical but not unconstitutional

Judge Sannes has focused much of her attention on the department’s decision to not try to contact the 2014 accuser, who said Thompson offered to clear her record for oral sex.

And blame, the judge indicated, could fall hardest on Galvin.

Chester Thompson heads into court in 2015.

If a jury determines the veteran cop lied about trying to reach the accuser, that would show that he and the department were “indifferent to the truth” and “exhibited gross negligence or deliberate indifference to a high risk” that Thompson would violate the rights of other women, the judge wrote.

The judge hammered home that concern during a hearing earlier this year in a Syracuse courtroom.

“Isn’t there evidence … that (Galvin) told the chief of police and the deputy chief of police that he attempted to contact the alleged victim … that she wouldn’t return his phone calls when in fact he made no effort to contact her?” the judge asked during the Jan. 8 appearance.

The city tried to shift the blame to Thompson.

“Now, this is unethical, it’s abhorrent, improper, violation of the rules and regulations, we don’t like it we don’t want our police officers doing it,” the city’s lawyer, John Powers, admitted. “It’s not unconstitutional.”

Sannes wasn’t impressed.

That “completely ignores the police officer’s authority, the coercive consequences of a police officer directing a woman to perform a sexual act,” she said.

The judge pointed to the allegation that Thompson had ordered a prostitute into his patrol car. The woman told Galvin later that she feared she would be arrested if she didn’t comply.

“In my view, that’s an allegation of unconstitutional deprivation of liberty under the 14th Amendment,” Sannes said. It “shocks the conscience to have a police officer picking up a prostitute to have oral sex.”

Lasting damage

Cheryle Bassett, of Cleveland, Ohio, says former Syracuse police officer Chester Thompson coerced her into repeated sex after she fell behind on rent at his North Side property in the early 2000s. Thompson admitted having sex with Bassett, but denied it revolved around back rent. David Petkiewicz | cleveland.com David Petkiewicz | cleveland.comDavid Petkiewicz | cleveland.com

Bassett, who was Thompson’s tenant on the North Side, said she was so traumatized by Thompson that she left Syracuse for Ohio.

The repeated coerced sex led to depression, the loss of her job, and dependence on family for financial support, she said.

“It’s horrible. I’ve tried so hard to put it out of my mind so much,” she said recently. “It’s hard to remember all of those details. It’s like reliving the nightmare all over again. I can’t even tolerate to see his face.”

But Bassett said that even though her abuse happened too long ago to sue, it was important to help the lawsuit.

“I just feel like the police department should be held responsible,” she said. “I don’t doubt that they’re still covering up.”

Another woman, Kimi Fletcher, accused Thompson of coercing her into on-duty sex. Thompson pleaded guilty in Fletcher’s case at the same time he admitted sex in Montanez’s case.

Fletcher told Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard she has struggled with how to cope. Should she sue? Should she try to hide in hopes the pain went away?

“I didn’t file a lawsuit,” she said, although lawyers contacted her. “I wanted it to be over with. I finally found some closure and I’m in a happy place.”

In the end, Fletcher knew the other women were dealing with the same pain.

“I wish I could just hug them all,” she said.