Former HPD cop guilty of raping cantina waitress

Former Houston Police officer Abraham Joseph, 28, is red-eyed after his guilty verdict was read on two counts of aggravated sexual assault, ﻿the most serious possible charge. ﻿ Former Houston Police officer Abraham Joseph, 28, is red-eyed after his guilty verdict was read on two counts of aggravated sexual assault, ﻿the most serious possible charge. ﻿ Photo: Johnny Hanson Photo: Johnny Hanson Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Former HPD cop guilty of raping cantina waitress 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

Prosecutor Eric Bily turned and gave the victim a discreet thumbs-up after jurors on Thursday found a former Houston police officer guilty of raping the woman.

Bily gave her a hug, and she began to cry.

"I would like to thank God," the woman said through a translator. "And all the people who believed me because I just told the truth. I am very pleased because justice has been made."

Abraham Joseph, 28, was found guilty of two counts of aggravated sexual assault. Joseph's wife sobbed and leaned against her father-in-law as the judge read the verdicts inside a Harris County courtroom.

The jury deliberated for eight hours over two days. It will return Friday to continue the sentencing phase.

The aggravated sexual assault charge required the jury to find that a weapon was used during the rape. Joseph was in uniform and had his Glock .40 on a belt during the January 2011 attack but did not remove it. The jury did not choose the lower charges to sexual assault or improper sexual activity with a person in custody.

The waitress, 37, testified that Joseph detained her at 3 a.m. outside the cantina where she worked, put her in his patrol car, took her to a dark park and raped her while she was handcuffed. She alleges that Joseph assaulted her on the trunk of his police cruiser. He was relieved of duty the same day the attack was reported, HPD officials said.

The Houston Chronicle does not identify victims of sexual assaults.

3 other alleged victims

Jurors heard from three other alleged rape victims in the sentencing phase of the trial. All worked at nightclubs in the neighborhood Joseph patrolled, and all live in the U.S. illegally.

When Joseph was brought back into the courtroom for their testimony, he buttoned his suit jacket and put a string of prayer beads into his pocket.

One of the women was in a car with a co-worker when she said Joseph pulled them over. She said she saw Joseph force her friend to perform oral sex before he returned to the car for her. He told her it was her turn.

"I told him he was a corrupt police officer," and lashed out at him with an obscenity, the woman said through a translator, although she speaks some English. "He told me to shut up."

She said after the attack, he followed them home in his patrol car and threatened them.

"He told me that if we said anything he would sic immigration on us," said one of the women through a translator. The other woman in the car who said she, too, was attacked, stopped letting her boys play outside because of the incident.

Their testimony fit with the prosecution's arguments that Joseph planned the rapes and used his authority as a police officer to coerce them.

The defense had argued in the trial that his accuser negotiated for herself and another man in the patrol car to be released in exchange for sex.

Accuser has asylum

Defense attorney Nicole DeBorde said Wednesday in closing statements that although Joseph made a mistake cheating on his pregnant wife and compromising his duties as a police officer, everything he did with his accuser was consensual.

The accuser in the trial now lives here legally under a form of asylum that requires periodic review.

Joseph faces a possible prison sentence of five years to life with possibility for parole. The two counts would run concurrently. His accuser and two of the other women have filed a civil suit against him.

jayme.fraser@chron.com