A former Tarrant County deputy constable has been arrested and charged with indecent assault.
Oluwafemi “Femi” Awe was arrested earlier this month for allegedly exposing himself to two women at a party in February and using his position as a peace officer to threaten them, a news release from the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office announced.
The incident allegedly started on February 25 at the Koe Wetzel’s Riot Room in Fort Worth after closing time.
As an arrest affidavit obtained by The Dallas Morning News explained, a 19-year-old woman recounted having encountered Awe there while hanging out with her 18-year-old girlfriend and others. In her statement to a detective from the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office, at some point, Awe offered to drive the friend group to an apartment they planned to head to next.
At around 4:30 a.m., they arrived at the apartment and continued drinking, as well as allegedly doing cocaine, according to a search warrant obtained by WFAA. Awe and the two women then left to go to another apartment unit within the complex, where Awe reportedly offered to Venmo the women $100 if he could snort cocaine off someone’s chest, and one of them complied.
According to the 19-year-old woman, Awe then allegedly invited her and her girlfriend to meet a friend of his, and she followed in her truck, according to her testimony, per DMN. However, when traffic slowed them down at around 9:30 a.m., Awe allegedly contacted the two women and suggested getting a hotel.
The 19-year-old said she followed his directions and arrived in a parking lot near Walmart in the 5800 block of Hulen Street, yet there was no hotel. Awe allegedly jumped into the back of the truck, and the three individuals continued to do drugs before things reportedly took a turn that suddenly made the 19-year-old become “scared something bad was going to happen,” per DMN.
Awe allegedly removed his clothes and “became intimidating and stern,” telling them to join him and to kiss each other while he pleasured himself, the 19-year-old woman recalled. After allegedly doing so and groping the woman’s girlfriend, she claimed that he then threatened them.
“If you ever tell anybody, I know you have a coke and a gun in the car, I’m a cop,” the 19-year-old woman recalled him saying, per DMN. She explained having been afraid to come forward due to this remark.
After Awe’s March 9 arrest, he posted a $5,000 bond and sought legal representation with attorney Tiffany Burks.
“Not everything salacious is criminal. We welcome the opportunity to defend the accusations against Femi,” Burks wrote in a statement to WFAA.
Awe’s latest position was at the Tarrant County Constable’s Precinct 7 office in Mansfield. However, he was issued a peace officer’s license in 2018 and worked at various precincts within Tarrant County, including a three-month stint at the Godley Police Department.
Due to the allegations made against him, the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office suspects that other possible victims may be out there and encourages anyone with information to come forward by calling (817) 884-2233 to speak to Det. Holland or (817) 884-3306 for Lt. Morris.
In nearby Dallas, there had been 108 sex crimes and 5,200 assault offenses logged as of March 21, according to the City’s crime analytics dashboard. The majority of victims in these categories of crime were female as well as either Hispanic or black.
The Dallas Police Department has been critically understaffed, making it difficult to effectively curb crime rates. DPD currently has only around 3,000 officers in the field despite a City analysis recommending a force of roughly 4,000.
Moreover, DPD will operate on a budget of just $654 million this fiscal year after the Dallas City Council opted to spend considerably less taxpayer money on policing than its counterparts in other high-crime jurisdictions, including New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
